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I THE CONDITION OF CATHOLICS 
UNDER JAMES I. 



FATHER GERARD'S NARRATIVE 
OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 



EDITED, WITH HIS LIFE, BY 

JOHN MORRIS, 

Priest of the Society of Jesus. 



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LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO 

1872. 



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ROEHAMPTON : 


NTED BY JAMES STANLEY 



33 



CONTENTS. 



The Life of Father John Gerard . . pp. ix— cclii 

Additional Notes ccliii — cclxii 

A NARRATIVE OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
':he Preface . . -pp. i— 14 

CHAPTER I. 

The state of persecuted Catholics at the Queen's death and the 
King's entry, with their hopes of relaxation by him, whereof 
they failed pp. 15 — 30 

CHAPTER II. 

The increase of persecution and all kinds of molestations unto 
Catholics, with their failing of all hopes, procured by the Puritan 
faction pp. 31 — 48 

CHAPTER III. 

How, upon these and the like motives, divers gentlemen did conspire 
and conclude upon some violent remedy . . . pp. 49 — 60 



"? 



CHAPTER IV. 



How, after they had begun their enterprise, they fell into some scruple, 
and went about to satisfy their conscience by asking questions 
afar off, of learned men, without opening the case . pp. 61 — 69 

CHAPTER V. 

How Father Garnett, beginning to suspect something by certain 
generalities he understood of the gentlemen, wrote divers letters 
to Rome for prevention of rebellion .... pp. 70 — 82 



iv Contents. 

CHAPTER VI. 

How, in the mean space, the conspirators proceeded in their purpose, 
and drew in more complices, and what they were . pp. 83 — 94 

CHAPTER VII. 

How, the Parliament drawing near, the whole Plot was discovered, 
and that which ensued therefrom .... pp. 95 — 112 

CHAPTER VIII. 

How, upon examination of the prisoners, it was apparent that no other 
Catholics could be touched with the conspiracy. The same also 
confirmed by His Majesty's own words, to the great comfort of 
Catholics . pp. 113 — 129 

CHAPTER IX. 

How the Fathers of the Society were by industry of the heretics 
drawn into this matter, to incense the King against them, and 
for them against the Catholic religion . . pp. 130— -14.7 

CHAPTER X. 

How Father Garnett, the Superior, was discovered and taken in 
Worcestershire and brought up to London : and of his first 
entreaty and examination . . . . . pp. 148 — 160 

CHAPTER XI. 
Of Father Garnett, his carriage to the Tower and subtle usage there. 
Also of the usage of Father Ouldcorne and Nicholas Owen, 
Ralph, and John Grisoll in the same place . pp. 161 — 190 

CHAPTER XII. 

Of the arraignment, condemnation, and execution of the conspirators, 
with the full clearing of some of the Society falsely accused in 
this arraignment pp. 191 — 223 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Of the arraignment and condemnation of Father Garnett . pp. 224 — 264 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Of the arraignment and execution of Father Ouldcorne and those that 
suffered with him, and of the occurrences there, with a brief 
relation of his life pp. 265 — 286 



Contents. v 

CHAPTER XV. 

Of the execution of Father Garnett, with a brief relation of his 
life pp. 287 — 297 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Of the state of Catholics after Father Garnett his execution : how 
God did comfort them with some miraculous events, and how 
their zeal increased, notwithstanding the increase of persecu- 
tion . pp. 298 — 314 

CHAPTER XVII. 

A catalogue of the laws against Catholics made by Queen Elizabeth 
and confirmed by this King, and of others added by him- 
self pp. 315—331 

Alphabetical Index pp. 333 — 344 



THE LIFE OF 

FATHER JOHN GERARD. 



THE LIFE OF FATHER JOHN GERARD. 



I. 

The life and character of a witness are the grounds on which we 
base our estimate of his credibility. That he should have spoken 
of himself at great length and with many and minute details is a 
circumstance most favourable to the formation of an accurate 
judgment respecting him. Such is fortunately our position with 
regard to Father John Gerard, the author of the Narrative of the 
Gunpowder Plot. He has left a full and most interesting 
autobiography in Latin ; and we have felt that we could not do 
the reader a better service, or better establish the good fame of a 
man who has been unjustly accused, than by prefixing to his 
Narrative translations of large portions of his Autobiography. 
When the life of Father Gerard is before the reader, we will 
address ourselves directly to the subject of his veracity, and in 
conclusion, we will give what is known of the history of the 
Autobiography, and of the autograph manuscript from which the 
Narrative of the Powder Plot is printed. 

John Gerard was the second son of Sir Thomas Gerard, of 
Bryn, 1 Lancashire, Knight, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John 
Port, of Etwal, Derbyshire, Knight. In the Narrative 2 of the 
Plot, when he has occasion to speak of his elder brother Thomas, 
who received knighthood from King James on his accession, he 
says " that was to him no advancement whose ancestors had been 

1 "William Gerard, son of William who died at Eton-hall in 26 Edward III. 
[1352], by his marriage with Joan, daughter and heiress of Sir Peter Bryn de 
Brynhill, convertible into Sir Peter Brynhill de Bryn, became possessed of 
Bryn, Ashton, and other estates, which have remained in the Gerards of Bryn 
ever since." . . . " This family have had four seats within the township of 
Ashton, viz. , Old Bryn, abandoned five centuries ago ; New Bryn, erected 
in the reign of Edward VI. ; Garswood, taken down at the beginning of the 
present century ; and the New Hall, the present residence of the family, built 
by the Launders about the year 1692, and purchased by the Gerards forty 
years ago" (Baines, Hist, of Lancaster, 1836, vol. hi., pp. 637, 639). 

2 Infra p. 27. 

b 



x Life of Father John Gerard. 

so for sixteen or seventeen descents together." This Sir Thomas 
was made a baronet at the first creation of that dignity in 1611. 

"I was born," in 1564, "of Catholic parents, who never con- 
cealed their profession, for which they suffered much from our 
heretic rulers ; so much so that, when a child of five years of age, 
I was forced, together with my brother who was also a child, 
to dwell among heretics under another roof, for that my father, 
with two other gentlemen, had been cast into the Tower of 
London, for having conspired to restore the Scottish Queen to 
liberty and to her kingdom. She was at that time confined in the 
county of Derby" [at Tutbury 1 ] "at two miles distance from us. 
Three years afterwards, my father, having obtained his release by 
the payment of a large sum, brought us home, free however from 
any taint of heresy, as he had maintained a Catholic tutor over us." 

Sir Thomas Gerard was again in the Tower of London later 
on, and had been there more than two years when his son landed 
in England as a Priest. 2 A little before this imprisonment, he 
had been summoned by his kinsman, 3 Sir Gilbert Gerard, the 
Master of the Rolls, to compound for his recusancy by the " free 
offer " of a yearly sum to be paid to the Queen, " to be freed from 
the penalty of the statute." As it gives an excellent idea of the 
exactions to which wealthy Catholics were continually subjected 
in those days, we subjoin Sir Thomas' "offer." The original in 
the Public Record Office 4 is signed by himself. 

" 14 die Martii, 1585. 
"Sir Thomas Gerard saith that he is greatly in debt, by reason 
of his troubles and suretyship, and payeth large interest for the 

1 Tutbury is in Staffordshire, on the borders of Derbyshire, near to Etwal. 

2 Public Record Office, Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 215, n. 19. "Return of 
Prisoners in the Tower," endorsed in Lord Burghley's hand, "2 Julii, 1588" 
[an error for August]. "April 1, 1585. Imprimis, the Earl of Arundel, 
prisoner three years four months. . . . August 23, 1586. Sir Thomas Gerard, 
Knight, prisoner one year eleven months : indicted for treason. " At the end 
of the list are the names of five Priests "committed for religion." From 
the Tower Sir Thomas Gerard was removed to the Counter in Wood-street 
{Domestic, Eliz., vol. 217, n. 27). 

3 Sir Gilbert Gerard was of the family of the Gerards of Ince, a younger 
branch of the Gerards of Bryn. His eldest son, Sir Thomas, was the first 
Lord Gerard of Gerards Bromley. 

4 Domestic, Eliz., vol. 187, n. 48, viii. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xi 

same ; and hath sold much of his lands and departed with a large 
portion of the rest unto his sons ; and hath two daughters to 
bestow, so that he is not able to offer any great sums unto Her 
Highness in this behalf" [preparation to resist the Spanish 
invasion]. "Yet, nevertheless, he most humbly submitteth 
himself unto Her Majesty's pleasure, offering his person to 
serve Her Highness in any place of the world. And if he shall 
not be admitted thereto, then he offereth, with very good will, 
30/. a-year, which is the fourth part of his small portion remain- 
ing, now left to maintain himself, his poor wife and children. 

"Thomas Gerard." 

The name of "Dame Elizabeth Gerard" heads the list of 
thirty-three "Recusants sometimes resident about London and in 
Middlesex, but now dispersed into other countries." 

With regard to the mention of property transferred by Sir 
Thomas Gerard to his sons, it may be interesting to quote from 
the information of a spy, 1 given just ten years later, the following 
details — 

"Item, John Gerard the Jesuit hath certain houses in Lan- 
cashire, called Brockehouse Row, near Ashton; he hath made 
leases, and one tenant hath not paid all his fine : old John 
Southworth, dwelling thereabouts, is his bailiff, who can show 
how else the land and title standeth." 

"At the age of fifteen," the Autobiography resumes, "I was 
sent to Exeter College, Oxford, where my tutor was a certain 
Mr. Leutner, 2 a good and learned man, and a Catholic in mind 
and heart. There however I did not stay more than a twelve- 
month, as at Easter the heretics sought to force us to attend their 
worship, and to partake of their counterfeit sacrament. I returned 
then with my brother to my father's house, whither Mr. Leutner 
himself soon followed us, being resolved to live as a Catholic in 
very deed, and not merely in desire. While there, he superin- 
tended our Latin studies for the next two years, but afterwards 
going to Belgium, he lived and died there most holily. As for 
Greek, we were at the same time placed under the tuition of a 

1 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 251, n. 14. Feb. 3, 1595. 

2 Probably Edmund Lewckener, who appears in the College books as one 
of the new fellows on Sir W. Petre's foundation in 1566. 



xii Life of Father John Gerard. 

good and pious Priest, William Sutton by name, to whom this 
occupation served as an occasion for dwelling in our house 
unmolested. He afterwards entered the Society, and was drowned 
on the coast of Spain, whither Superiors had called him. 

"At the age of nineteen I passed over to France, by per- 
mission, with the object of learning the French tongue, and 
resided for three years at Rhemes. While there, though yet a lad, 
and far from being solidly grounded in my Humanities, I applied 
myself to the study of Sacred Scripture, consulting the commen- 
tators for the sense of the more difficult passages, and writing 
down with my 'own hand the explanations given publicly to the 
theological students. Being my own master, I did not, as I 
ought to have done, lay a sufficiently solid foundation. My own 
taste guided my choice of authors, and I sedulously read the 
works of St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure, and such other spiritual 
writers. About this time I made, by God's providence, the 
acquaintance of a saintly young man, who had been admitted into 
the Society at Rome, but having for reasons of health been sent 
out for a time, was then living at Rhemes. He gave me the 
details of his past life ; he told me (may the Lord reward him) 
how he had been educated in the household of God ; he taught 
me how good and wholesome it was for a man to have borne the 
yoke from his youth. He taught me the method of mental prayer; 
for which exercise we were wont to meet together at stated hours, 
as we were not living in the College, but in different lodgings in 
the town. It was there that, when about twenty years of age, 
I heard the call of God's infinite mercy and loving kindness 
inviting me from the crooked ways of the world to the straight 
path, to the perfect following of Christ in His holy Society. 

" After my three years' residence at Rhemes, I went to 
Clermont College, at Paris, to see more closely the manner of the 
Society's life, and to be more solidly grounded in Humanities and 
Philosophy. I had not been there one year, when I fell dan- 
gerously ill. After my recovery, I accompanied Father Thomas 
Darbyshire to Rouen, in order to see Father Persons, who had 
arrived thither from England, and was staying incognito in that 
city, to superintend the publication of his Christian Directory, a 
most useful and happy work, which in my opinion has converted to 



Life of Father John Gerard. xiii 

God more souls than it contains pages. The heretics themselves 
have known how to appreciate it, as appears from a recent edition 
thereof published by one of their ministers, who sought to claim 
the glory of so important a work. To Father Persons then did I 
communicate my vocation, and my desire of joining the Society. 
But as I was not yet strong, nor fit to continue my studies, and, 
moreover, as I had some property to dispose of and arrangements 
to make in England, he advised me to return thither, so as to 
recruit my health by breathing my native air, and at the same 
time to free myself from every obstacle which might prevent or 
delay me in my pursuit of perfection and the Religious life. I 
accordingly went home, and after settling my affairs, set out on 
my return, in about a year; this time, however, without having 
asked for a license, for I had no hope of obtaining it, as I did not 
venture to communicate my plans to my parents. 

"I embarked then with some other Catholics, and after having 
been kept five days at sea by contrary winds, we were forced to 
put in at the port of Dover. On arriving thither, we were all 
seized by the Custom House officers, and forwarded to London in 
custody. My companions were imprisoned, on a warrant of the 
Queen's Privy Council. For my own part, though I declared 
myself a Catholic, and refused to attend their worship, I escaped 
imprisonment at that time, as there were some of the Council that 
were friendly to my family, and had procured me the license to 
travel abroad on the former occasion. They entertained, it would 
seem, some hopes of perverting me in course of time, so I was 
sent to my maternal uncle's, a Protestant, to be kept in his 
custody, and if possible, to be perverted. He, after three months, 
sought to obtain my full liberty by praying or paying; 1 but 
being asked whether I had gone to church, as they call it, he was 
obliged to acknowledge that he could never bring me to do so. 
Thereupon the Council sent me with a letter to the pseudo- 
Bishop of London, 2 who having read it, asked whether I would 
allow him to confer with me on religious matters. I replied, that 
as I doubted of nothing, I had rather decline. ' You must in that 
case,' answered the Superintendent, 'remain here in custody.' I 

1 Prece vel pretio (MS. ). 

2 John Elmer, Bishop of London from 1576 to 1588. 



xiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

replied that in this I was obliged to acquiesce, through force and 
the command of the Government. He treated me with kindness, 
with a view perhaps of thus drawing me over. But he ordered his 
chaplain's bed to be brought into my chamber. At first I repeat- 
edly declared my determination not to enter into any dispute 
with this man on matters of faith, as to which my mind was 
settled, nor to receive religious instruction from him ; but as he 
ceased not pouring forth abuse and blasphemy against the Saints 
in Heaven, and against our Holy Mother the Church, I was 
forced to defend the truth, and then almost the whole night was 
spent in disputing. I soon discovered that in him at least God's 
truth had no very formidable adversary. After two days, as they 
saw my case was hopeless, they sent me back to the Council with 
letters of recommendation forsooth, for the so-called Bishop told 
me that he had greatly striven in my favour, and that he had great 
hopes of my being set at large. It was, however, a Uriah's letter 
that I carried, for no sooner had the Council read it, than they 
ordered me to be imprisoned until I had learnt to be a loyal 
subject. For they hold him a bad subject who will not subject 
himself to their heresies and their sacrilegious worship. 

"Being committed to the Marshalsea prison, I found there 
numbers of Catholics and some Priests 1 awaiting judgment of 
death with the greatest joy. In this school of Christ I was 
detained from the beginning of one Lent " [March 5, 1584] 
u to the end of the following, not without abundant conso- 
lation of mind, and good opportunity for study. 

"Twice during this interval we were all dragged before the 
Courts, not to be tried for our lives, but to be fined according 
to the law against recusants. I was condemned to pay 2,000 
florins [200/.]. 2 The Court was held in the country, some six 
miles out of London. . . ." 3 

1 There were 47 Catholics in the prison, of whom 1 1 were Priests, amongst 
whom were William Hartley and John Adams, future martyrs, and William 
Bishop, the first Vicar Apostolic (P. R. 0., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 170, n. 11). 

2 In a letter dated October 3, 1614 (Stonyhurst MSS., Angl.A., iv., 24), 
Father Gerard says that "7 florins of Liege make but 6 of Brabant, 12s. 
English." So we may turn his florins into pounds by taking off the last cypher. 

3 Another occasion may present itself for placing before the reader the 
many anecdotes of the English Martyrs related in the Autobiography, that are 
now passed over. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xv 

" At times our cells were visited, and a strict search made for 
church stuff, Agnus Dei, and relics. Once we were, almost all 
of us, betrayed by a false brother, who had feigned to be a 
Catholic, and disclosed our hidden stores to the authorities. On 
this occasion were seized quantities of Catholic books and sacred 
objects, enough to fill a cart. In my cell were found nearly all 
the requisites for saying Mass : for my next-door neighbour was 
a good Priest, and we discovered a secret way of opening the 
door between us so that we had Mass very early every morning. 
We afterwards repaired our losses, nor could the malice of the 
devil again deprive us of so great a consolation in our bonds. 

" In the course of the following year, my liberty was obtained 
by the importunities of my friends, who however were bound as 
sureties, to the extent of a heavy sum of money, for my remaining 
in the kingdom. I was, moreover, to present myself at the 
prison at the three months' end. And these sureties had to be 
renewed three or four times before I was able to resume my 
project. At length the long-wished-for opportunity presented 
itself. A very dear friend of mine offered himself as bail to meet 
whatever demand might be made, if I was discovered to be 
missing after the appointed time. After my departure, he forfeited 
not indeed his money, but his life : for he was one of the most 
conspicuous of those fourteen gentlemen who suffered in connec- 
tion with the captive Queen of Scots, and whose execution, as 
events soon showed, was but a prelude to taking off the Queen 
herself. 

"Being at length free, I went to Paris; 1 and finding Father 
William Holt, who had just arrived from Scotland, ready to start 
for Rome with the Provincial of France, I joined myself to their 
company. At Rome I was advised to pursue my studies in the 
English College, and to take Priest's Orders before I entered 
the Society. I followed this advice, despite my ardent desire 
of entering Religion, which I communicated to Father Persons, 
and to Father Holt, the then Rector of the English College. 

1 Father Gerard was present, he says, at the martyrdom of William 
Thomson, who suffered at Tyburn, April 20, 1586. Father Holt became 
Rector of the English College at Rome, October 24, 1586; and the name of 
John Gerard is the first entry for 1587 in the College Catalogue. 



xvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

But as the Roman climate was not suited to my constitution, 
and I had an extreme desire of going to England, it seemed 
good to the Fathers to put me at the beginning of the year 
to casuistry and controversies ; I went therefore through a com- 
plete course of Positive Theology. Towards its close, when 
the Spanish Armada was nearing the coasts of England, Cardinal 
Allen thought fit to send me to England for various matters 
connected with Catholic interests, but as I still wanted several 
months' of the lawful age for taking Priest's Orders, a Papal 
dispensation was obtained. I was most unwilling to depart unless 
I was first admitted into the Society, so Father Persons, out of 
his singular charity towards me, obtained my admission to the 
Novitiate, which I was to finish in England. There were at that 
time in the English College some others who had the like 
vocation, and we used to strive to conform ourselves as much as 
possible to the Novices at St. Andrew's, serving in the kitchen, 
and visiting hospitals. On the Feast of the Assumption of the 
Most Blessed Virgin Mary, 1588, our Very Rev. Father General 
Aquaviva received Father Edward Ouldcorne of blessed memory 
and my unworthy self into the Society of Jesus, and gave us his 
blessing for the English Mission." 

II. 

" I started then on my homeward journey, 1 in company with 
Father Ouldcorne and two other Priests who had been students 
at the English College." . . . "As we passed through Rhemes, 
where there was an English Seminary, and through Paris, we 
kept the strictest incognito." 

Father Gerard's passing through Paris was not as little known 
as he thought, and without being aware of it, he then fell into 
the gravest of the perils that beset the poor Catholics of England, 
the "perils from false brethren." Gilbert Gifford, alias Jacques 
Colerdin, " an English Priest and Bachelor in Theology," as he 
describes himself in his petition 2 to the Archbishop of Paris for 

1 When Father Gerard has occasion, in his Narrative of the Powder Plot, 
to relate what he knows of Father Ouldcorne's history, he gives an account 
of this journey [ififr. p. 279). 

2 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 217, n. 81. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xvii 

liberation from his prison in Paris, was one of Sir Francis 
Walsyngham's most copious correspondents. He had been 
arrested for Babington's conspiracy, and turned spy to save his 
life. He had a pension 1 from Walsyngham of ioo/. a-year for his 
treachery, the suspicion of which caused his imprisonment. 
Apparently from his prison, he found means to write a letter 2 to 
his employers, in which the following sentence occurs : " There 
be 8 Priests over from Rome, whereof John Gerard and Arthur 
Shefford a Priest, and his man, will be in England within five days." 
In all unconsciousness Father Gerard proceeds: "At length 
we came to Eu, where a College for English youths had been 
established, which was afterwards abandoned on account of 
the wars, and another more extensive establishment erected at 
St. Omers. Our Fathers at Eu, after conferring with those 
who had the management of the College in that town, all 
strongly opposed our venturing into England as circumstances 
then were, for that the Spanish attempt had exasperated the 
public mind against Catholics, and most rigid searches and 
domiciliary visits had been set on foot ; that guards were posted 
in every village along the roads and streets ; that the Earl of 
Leicester, then at the height of his favour, had sworn not to 
leave a single Catholic alive at the close of the year, but this 
man of blood did not live out half his days, for he was cut off 
in that very same year. We were compelled then to stay there 
for a time, until fresh instructions were sent us by Father Persons 
in the name of Father General. They were to this effect, that 
the state of affairs had indeed much changed since our departure 
from Rome, but that, as it was the Lord's business that we had to 
do, he left us free either to wait the return of greater calm or to 
pursue the course we had entered upon. On receiving this 
desirable message we did not long deliberate, but immediately 
hired a ship to land us in the northern part of England, which 
seemed to be less disturbed. Two Priests from Rhemes joined 
us, as our former companions preferred to take time before they 
faced the dangers which awaited them on the opposite shores. 

1 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 199, nn. 95, 96. 

2 Ibid, vol. 217, n. 3. The Calendar gives for its date Oct. I, 1588. The 
postscript of the letter bears the date " 8 Septembris." 



xviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

"The ship then set sail with four Priests on board, a goodly- 
cargo indeed, had not my unworthiness deprived me of the crown, 
for all those other three suffered martyrdom for the faith. The 
two Priests were soon taken, and being in a short space made 
perfect, they fulfilled a long time. Their names were Christopher 
Bales and George Beesley, 1 but my companion, the blessed 
Father Ouldcorne, after having spent eighteen years of toil and 
labour in the Lord's vineyard, watered it at length with his blood. 

"After crossing the Channel, as we were sailing along the 
English coast on the third day, my companion and I, seeing 
a convenient spot in which the ship's boat might easily set us on 
shore, and considering that it were dangerous if we were to land 
all together, recommended the matter to God and took counsel 
with our companions. We then ordered the ship to anchor 
until dark, and in the first watch we were put ashore in the 
boat and left there, whereupon the ship immediately set sail 
and departed. We remained there awhile commending ourselves 
in prayer to God's providence; then we sought out some path 
which might lead us further inland, at a greater distance from the 
sea, before the day should dawn. But the night being dark and 
cloudy we could not strike out any path that would lead us to the 
open country, but every way we tried always brought us to some 
dwelling, as we were made aware by the barking of the dogs. 
As this happened some two or three times we began to fear lest 
we might rouse some of the inhabitants, and be seized upon as 
thieves or burglars. We therefore turned into a neighbouring 
wood, where we proposed to rest during the night. But the rain 
and the cold (for it was about the end of October) rendered sleep 
impossible, nor did we dare to speak aloud to one another, as the 
wood was in the neighbourhood of a house, but we deliberated in 
whispers whether to set out together for London or to part 
company, so that if one were taken the other might escape. 
Having pondered the reasons on both sides, we determined to 
set forth each by himself, and to take different routes. 



1 They both suffered in Fleet Street; Christopher Bales on March 4, 1590, 
and George Beesley on July 2, 1591. They were condemned under the statute 
27 Elizabeth, for being made Priests beyond the seas and exercising their 
functions in England. 



Life of Father yohn Gerard. xix 

" At day-dawn, then, we cast lots who should first leave the 
wood, and the lot fell on the good Father who was also the first 
to leave this world for Heaven. We then made an equal division 
of what money we had, and after embracing and receiving one 
from the other a blessing, the future martyr went along the 
sea-shore to a neighbouring town, where he fell in with some 
sailors who were thinking of going to London. Being prudent 
and cautious, he strove by cheerfulness to accommodate himself 
to their humours in indifferent things. But twice or thrice he 
could not withhold from reproving their coarse and filthy 
language, though he imperilled himself by so doing, as he 
afterwards told me." . . . " Evil as they were, he did not so 
displease them, but that, by their means, and the protection they 
unwittingly afforded, he was enabled to reach London without 
molestation; for the watchers, who were in almost every town 
through which he passed, taking him to be one of the party, cared 
not to annoy those whose appearance and carriage distinguished 
them so completely from those for whom they were keeping 
watch. 

" When my companion had departed, I too set out, but by a 
different road. I had not gone far before I saw some country 
folks coming towards me. I went up to them and inquired about 
a stray falcon, whether they had heard the tinkling of his bells. 
For I wanted them to think that I had lost a falcon, and was 
going through the country in search of it, as is usual with those 
who have sustained such a loss, so that they might not wonder 
why I was strange to the country and had to ask my way. They 
of course had neither seen nor heard any such thing of late, and 
seemed sorry that they could not direct my search. I then went 
with a disappointed air to examine the neighbouring trees and 
hedges, as if to look for my bird. Thus I was able, without 
awakening suspicion, to keep clear of the highway, and to get 
further and further from the sea-shore by going across country. 
Whenever I saw any one in a field I went up to him and put the 
same series of questions about the falcon, concealing thereby my 
anxiety to keep out of the public roads and villages, where I 
knew sentinels were posted with power to examine every 
stranger. I thus managed to expend the best part of that day, 



xx Life of Father John Gerard. 

walking some eight or ten miles, not in a straight line, but by 
doubling and returning frequently on my steps. At length, being 
quite soaked with rain and exhausted with hunger and fatigue, 
for I had scarcely been able to take any food or rest on board 
ship for the tossing of the waves, I turned into a village inn 
which lay in my road, for those who go to the inns are less liable 
to be questioned. 

"There I refreshed myself well, and found mine host very 
agreeable, especially as I wanted to buy a pony he had in his 
stable. I concluded the bargain at a reasonable price, for the 
owner was not very rich, but I took it as a means of more speedy 
and safer transit, for foot-passengers are frequently looked upon 
as vagrants, and even in quiet times are liable to arrest. 

"Next morning I mounted my pony and turned towards 
Norwich, the capital of that county. I had scarcely ridden two 
miles when I fell in with the watchers at the entrance of a 
village, who bade me halt and began to ask me who I was and 
whence I came. I told them that I was the servant of a certain 
lord who lived in a neighbouring county (with whom I was well 
acquainted, though he was unknown to them), that my falcon 
had flown away, and that I had come to this part of the country 
to recover him if he should have been found. They found no 
flaw in my story, yet they would not let me go, but said I must 
be brought before the constable and the beadle, 1 who were both 
in church at the time, at their profane heretical service. I saw 
that I could neither fly nor resist, nor could I prevail with these 
men, so, yielding to necessity, I went with them as far as the 
churchyard. One of the party entered the church and brought 
word that the beadle wished me to come into the church, and 
that he would see me when service was over. I replied that I 
would wait for him where I was. ' No, no,' said the messenger, 
'you must go into the church.' 'I shall stop here,' I returned, 
'I do not want to lose sight of my horse.' 'What!' said the 
man, ' you won't dismount to go and hear the Word of God ! 
I can only warn you that you will make no very favourable 
impression ; as to your horse, I myself will engage to get you a 

1 Ad subcuratorem pacis, et ad censorem (MS.). The above are con- 
jectural renderings. These seem to have been only village officials. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxi 

better one, if you are so anxious about him.' ' Go and tell 
him,' said I, ' that if he wants me, either he must come at once 
or I will wait here.' As soon as my message was taken to him, 
the beadle came out with some others to examine me. I could 
easily see he was not best pleased. He began by demanding 
whence I came. I answered by naming certain places which I 
had learnt were not far off. To his questions as to my name, 
condition, dwelling, and business, I made the same answers as 
above. He then asked whether I had any letters with me, on 
which I offered to allow him to search my person. This he did 
not do, but said he should be obliged to take me before the 
Justice of the Peace. 1 I professed my readiness to go, should he 
deem it needful, but that I was in a hurry to get back to my 
master after my long absence, so that if it could be managed I 
should be better pleased to be allowed to go on. At first he 
stood to his resolution, and I saw nothing for it but to go before 
the Justice and to be committed to gaol, as doubtless would have 
been the case. But suddenly looking at me with a calmer 
countenance, he said, ' You look like an honest man : go on in 
God's name, I do not want to trouble you any more.' Nor did 
God's providence abandon me in my further journey. As I rode 
onward towards the town, I saw a young man on horseback with a 
pack riding on before me. I wanted to come up with him, so as 
to get information about the state of the town, and ask the fittest 
inn for me to put up at, and he looked like one of whom I could 
make such inquiries without exciting suspicion ; but his horse 
being better than mine I could not gain upon him, urge my pony 
how I would. After following him at a distance for two or three 
miles, it chanced by God's will that he dropped his pack, and was 
obliged to dismount in order to pick it up and strap it on. As I 
came up I found he was an unpolished youth, well fitted for my 
purpose. From him I acquired information that would have 
been very useful had any danger befallen, but, as it was, by his 
means the Lord so guided me, that I escaped all danger. For I 
inquired about a good inn near the city gate, that I might not 
weary my horse in going from street to street in search of one. 
He told me there was such an inn on the other side of the city ; 
1 Irenarcha aut curatore pacis (MS.). 



xxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

but that if I wanted to put up there I must go round the town. 
Having learnt the way thereto and the sign of the house, I 
thanked my informant, and left him to pursue his road, which 
led straight through the town, the same way I should have 
followed had I not met with such a guide, and in that case I 
should have run into certain danger, nor would any of those 
things have befallen which afterwards came to pass for God's 
greater glory and the salvation of many souls. 

" Following then the advice of the young man, I went round 
the skirts of the city to the gate he had described, and as soon as 
I entered I saw my inn. I had rested me but a little while there, 
when a man who seemed to be an acquaintance of the people of 
the house came in. After greeting me civilly, he sat down in the 
chimney corner, and dropped some words about some Catholic 
gentlemen who were kept in gaol there ; and he mentioned one 
whose relative had been a companion of mine in the Marshalsea 
some seven years since. I silently noted his words, and when he 
had gone out, I asked who he might be. They answered that he 
was a very honest fellow in other points, but a Papist. I inquired 
how they came to know that. They replied that it was a well- 
known fact, as he had been many years imprisoned in the Castle 
there (which was but a stone's throw from where I was); that 
many Catholic gentlemen were confined there, and that he had 
been but lately let out. I asked whether he had abandoned the 
Faith in order to be at large. 'No indeed,' said they, 'nor is he 
likely to, for he is a most obstinate man. But he has been set 
free under an engagement to come back to prison, when called 
for. He has some business with a gentleman in the prison, and 
he comes here pretty often, on that account.' I held my tongue, 
and awaited his return. As soon as he came back, and we were 
alone, I told him I should wish to . speak with him apart, that I 
had heard that he was a Catholic, and for that reason I trusted 
him, as I also was a Catholic : that I had come there by a sort of 
chance, but wanted to get on to London : that it would be a good 
deed worthy of a Catholic, were he to do me the favour of intro- 
ducing me to some parties who might be going the same road, 
and who were well known, so that I might be allowed to pass on 
by favour of their company : that being able to pay my expenses, 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxiii 

I should be no burden to my companions. He replied that he 
knew not of any one who was then going to London. I hereon 
inquired if he could hire a person who would accompany me for a 
set price. He said he would look out some such one, but that 
he knew of a gentleman then in the town, who might be able to 
forward my business. He went to find him, and soon returning 
desired me to accompany him. He took me into a shop, as if he 
were going to make some purchase. The gentleman he had 
mentioned was there, having appointed the place that he might 
see me before he made himself known. At length he joined us, 
and told my companion in a whisper that he believed I was a 
Priest. He led us therefore to the cathedral, and having put me 
many questions, he at last urged me to say whether or no I was 
a Priest, promising that he would assist me, at that time a most 
acceptable offer. On my side, I inquired from my previous 
acquaintance the name and condition of this party; and on 
learning it, as I saw God's providence in so ready an assistance, 
I told him I was a Priest of the Society, who had come from 
Rome. He performed his promise, and procured for me a change 
of clothes, and made me mount a good horse, and took me 
without delay into the country to the house of a personal friend, 
leaving one of his servants to bring on my little pony. The next 
day we arrived at his house, where he and his family resided, 
together with a brother of his who was a heretic. They had -with 
them a widowed sister, also a heretic, who kept house for them ; 
so that I was obliged to be careful not to give any ground for 
them to suspect my calling. The heretic brother at my first 
coming was somewhat suspicious, seeing me arrive in his Catholic 
brother's company unknown as I was, and perceiving no reason 
why the latter should make so much of me. But after a day or 
so, he quite abandoned all mistrust, as I spoke of hunting and 
falconry with all the details that none but a practised person could 
command. For many make sad blunders in attempting this, as 
Father Southwell, who was afterwards my companion in many 
journeys, was wont to complain. He frequently got me to instruct 
him in the technical terms of sport, and used to complain of his 
bad memory for such things, for on many occasions when he fell 
in with Protestant gentlemen, he found it necessary to speak of 



xxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

these matters, which are the sole topics of their conversation, save 
when they talk obscenity, or break out into blasphemies and abuse 
of the Saints or the Catholic faith. In these cases it is of course 
desirable to turn the conversation to other subjects, and to speak 
of horses, of hounds, and such like. Thus it often happens that 
trifling covers truth, 1 as it did with me on this occasion. After a 
short sojourn of a few days, I proposed to my newly-found friend, 
the Catholic brother, my intention of going to London, to meet 
my Superior. He therefore provided me with a horse, and sent a 
servant along with me ; begging me at the same time to obtain 
leave to return to that county, and to make his house my home, 
for he assured me that I should bring over many to the faith, were 
I to converse with them publicly as he had seen me do. I 
pledged myself to lay his offer before Father Garnett, and said 
that I would willingly return if he should approve of it. So I 
departed, and arrived in London without accident, having met 
with no obstacle on the road. I have gone into these particulars, 
to show how God's providence guarded me on my first landing in 
England ; for without knowing a single soul in that county, where 
until then I had never set foot, as it was far distant from my 
native place, on the very first day I found a friend who not only 
saved me from present peril, but who afterwards, by introducing 
me to the principal families in the county, furnished an opportu- 
nity for many conversions; and from the acquaintance I then 
made, and the knowledge the Catholics in those parts had of me 
in consequence, all that God chose hereafter to do by my weakness 
took its origin, as will appear by the sequel." 



III. 

" On my arrival in London, by the help of certain Catholics I 
discovered Father Henry Garnett, who was then Superior. Besides 
him, the only others of our Society then in England were Father 
Edmund Weston, 2 confined at Wisbech (who, had he been at 
large, would have been Superior), Father Robert Southwell, and 
we two new-comers. 

1 Ut vanitas veritatem occultet (MS.). 

2 Father William Weston, commonly called Father Edmonds. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxv 

" My companion, Father Ouldcorne, had already arrived, so the 
Superior was rather anxious on my account, as nothing had been 
heard of me ; but yet for that very reason hopes were entertained 
of my safety. It was with exceeding joy on both sides that we 
met at last. I stayed some time with the Fathers, and we held 
frequent consultations as to our future proceedings. The good 
Superior gave us excellent instructions as to the method of 
helping and gaining souls, as did also Father Southwell, who 
much excelled in that art, being at once prudent, pious, meek, 
and exceedingly winning. As Christmas was nigh at hand, it was 
necessary to separate, both for the consolation of the Faithful, and 
because the dangers are always greater in the great solemnities. 

"I was then sent back to my friend in the county where I was 
first set ashore. This time the Superior provided me with clothes 
and other necessaries, that I might not be a burden to my charitable 
host at the outset But afterwards, throughout the whole period 
of my missionary labours, the fatherly providence of God supplied 
both for me and for some others. My dress was of the same 
fashion as that of gentlemen of moderate means. The necessity 
of this was shown by reason and subsequent events ; for, from my 
former position, I was more at ease in this costume, and could 
maintain a less embarrassed bearing, than if I had assumed a 
character to which I was unaccustomed. Then, too, I had to 
appear in public and meet many Protestant gentlemen, with 
whom I could not have held communication with a view to lead 
them on to a love of the Faith and a desire of virtue, had I not 
adopted this garb. I found it helped me, not only to speak more 
freely and with greater authority, but to remain with greater safety, 
and for a longer interval of time, in any place or family to which 
my host introduced me as his friend and acquaintance. 

" Thus it happened that I remained for six or eight months, 
with some profit to souls, in the family of my first friend and 
host ; during which time, he took me with him to nearly every 
gentleman's house in the county. Before the eight months were 
passed, I gained over and converted many to the Church : among 
whom were my host's brother, his brother-in-law, and his two 
sisters ; one of these, as I have before mentioned, was my friend's 
housekeeper, and had been all along a notable Calvinist. 



xxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

" I reconciled, moreover, the sister of a Judge 1 who even now 
is the most firm support of the Calvinist party. This lady, 
having been brought up in his house, had been strongly imbued 
with this heresy. A very remarkable thing had happened to her 
some time previously. Being very anxious as to the state of her 
soul, she went to a certain Doctor of the University of Cambridge, 
of the name of Perne, 2 who she knew had changed his religion 
some three or four times under different sovereigns, but yet was 
in high repute for learning. Going to this Dr. Perne, then, who 
was an intimate friend of her family, she conjured him to tell 
her honestly and undisguisedly what was the sound orthodox faith 
whereby she might attain Heaven. The Doctor, finding himself 
thus earnestly appealed to by a woman of discretion and good 
sense, replied: 'I conjure you never to disclose to another what 
I am going to say. Since, then, you have pressed me to answer 
as if I had to give an account of your soul, I will tell you, that 
you can, if you please, live in the religion now professed by the 
Queen and her whole kingdom, for so you will live more at ease, 
and be exempt from all the vexations the Catholics have to 
undergo. But by no means die out of the faith and communion 
of the Catholic Church, if you would save your soul.' Such was 
the answer of this poor man, but such was not his practice ; for, 
putting off his conversion from day to day, it fell out that, when 
he least expected, on his return home from dining with the 
pseudo-Archbishop of Canterbury, he dropped down dead as he 
was entering his apartment, without the least sign of repentance, 
or of Christian hope of that eternal bliss which he had too easily 
promised to himself and to others after a life of a contrary 
tendency. She to whom he gave the above-mentioned advice 
was more fortunate than he, and though she at first by no means 
accepted his estimate of the Catholic faith, yet later on, having 

1 The name "Yelverton" is added in the margin. Sir Christopher 
Yelverton was at this time Queen's Serjeant, and subsequently Speaker of the 
House of Commons, and Puisne Judge of the King's Bench. He died in 
1607. His son, Sir Henry Yelverton, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 
condemned Father Edmund Arrowsmith in 1628, and died in the January 
following. 

2 Dr. Andrew Perne, Master of Peter-house, Cambridge, and second Dean 
of Ely. He is incidentally mentioned by Miss Strickland as having changed 
his religion four times {Lives of the Queens of England, vol. vii., p. 208). 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxvii 

frequently heard from me that the Catholic faith alone was true 
and holy, she began to have doubts, and in consequence brought 
to me an heretical work which had served to confirm her in her 
heresy, and showed me the various arguments it contained. I, 
on the other hand, pointed out to her the quibbles, the dishonest 
quotations from Scripture and the Fathers, and the misstatement 
of facts which the book contained. And so, by God's grace, from 
the scorpion itself was drawn the remedy against the scorpion's 
sting, and she has lived ever since constant in her profession of 
the Catholic faith to which she then returned. 

" I must not omit mentioning an instance of the wonderful 
efficacy of the Sacraments as shown in the case of the married 
sister of my host. She had married a man of high rank, and 
being favourably inclined to the Church, she had been so well 
prepared by her brother, that it cost me but little labour to make 
her a child of the Catholic Church. After her conversion she 
endured much from her husband when he found that she refused 
to join in heretical worship, but her patience withstood and 
overcame all. It happened on one occasion that she was so 
exhausted after a difficult and dangerous labour, that her life was 
despaired of. A clever physician was at once brought from 
Cambridge, who on seeing her said that he could indeed give 
her medicine, but that he could give no hopes of her recovery ; 
and having prescribed some remedies, he left. I was at that time 
on a visit to the house, having come, as was my wont, in company 
with her brother. The master of the house was glad to see us, 
although he well knew we were Catholics, and used in fact to 
confer with me on religious subjects. I had nearly convinced 
his understanding and judgment, but the will was rooted to the 
earth, 'for he had great possessions.' But being anxious for his 
wife, whom he dearly loved, he allowed his brother to persuade 
him, as there was no longer any hope for her present life, to allow 
her all freedom to prepare for the one to come. With his per- 
mission, then, we promised to bring in an old Priest on the 
following night : for those Priests who were ordained before 
Elizabeth's reign were not exposed to such dangers and penalties 
as the others. We therefore made use of his ministry, in order 
that this lady might receive all the rites of the Church. Having 



xxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

made her confession and been anointed with great devotion, 
she received the Holy Viaticum ; and behold in half an 
hour's time she so far recovered, as to be wholly out of 
danger ; the disease and its cause had vanished, and she 
had only to recover her strength. The husband, seeing his 
wife thus snatched from the jaws of death, wished to know 
the reason. We told him that it was one of the effects of 
the holy Sacrament of Extreme Unction, that it restored bodily 
health when Divine Wisdom saw that it was expedient for the 
good of the soul. This was the cause of his conversion ; for 
admiring the power and efficacy of the Sacraments of the true 
Church, he allowed himself to be persuaded to seek in that 
Church the health of his own soul. I, being eager to strike the 
iron while it was hot, began without delay to prepare him for 
confession ; but not wishing just then that he should know me for 
a Priest, I said that I would instruct him as I had been instructed 
by Priests in my time. He prepared himself, and awaited the 
Priest's arrival. His brother-in-law told him that this must be at 
night time. So, having sent away the servants who used to attend 
him to Lis chamber, he went into the library, where I left him 
praying, telling him that I would return directly with the Priest. I 
went downstairs and put on my soutane, and returned so changed 
in appearance that he, never dreaming of any such thing, was 
speechless with amazement. My friend and I showed him that 
our conduct was necessary, not so much in order to avoid danger, 
but in order to cheat the devil and to snatch souls from his 
clutches. He well knew, I said, that I could in no other way 
converse with him and his equals, and without conversation it 
was impossible to bring round those who were so ill-disposed. 
The same considerations served to dispel all anxieties as to the 
consequences of my sojourn under his roof. I appealed to his own 
experience, and reminded him, that though I had been in con- 
tinual contact with him, he had not once suspected my priestly 
character. He thus became a Catholic; and his lady, grateful to 
God for this two-fold blessing, perseveres still in the Faith, and 
has endured much since that time from the hands of heretics. 

" Besides these, I reconciled to the Church, during the period 
of my appearance in public, more than twenty fathers and 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxix 

mothers of families, equal, and some even superior, in station to 
the above mentioned. For prudence sake I omit their names. 
As for poor persons and servants, I received a great many; the 
exact number I do not remember." . . . 

" After some six or seven months, I received a visit from a 
Catholic gentleman of another county, a relative of one of my 
spiritual children, who was very desirous to make acquaintance 
with a Jesuit. He was a devout young man, and heir to a pretty 
considerable estate, one half of which came into his possession by 
his brother's death, the other portion being held for life by his 
mother, who was a good Catholic widow lady. Her son lived 
with her, and they kept a Priest in the house. He had then sold 
a portion of his estate, and devoted the proceeds to pious uses, 
for he was fervent and full of charity. After the lapse of a few 
days, as I saw his aspiration to a higher life and his desires of 
perfection wax stronger, I told him that there were certain 
spiritual exercises, by means of which a well-disposed person 
could discover a short road to perfection, and be best prepared to 
make choice of a state of life. He most earnestly begged to be 
allowed to make them. I acceded to his request, and he made 
great spiritual profit thereby, not only in that he made the best 
choice, which was that he would enter the Society of Jesus as 
soon as possible, but also because he made the best and most 
proper arrangements to carry his purpose into execution, and to 
preserve meanwhile his present fervour. After his retreat he 
expressed the greatest wish that I should come and live with him, 
and I had no rest until I promised to submit the matter to my 
Superior. For my own part, I could not but reflect that my 
present public mode of life, though in the beginning it had its 
advantages, could not be long continued, because the more 
people I knew and the more I was known to, the less became my 
safety, and the greater my distractions. Hence it was not without 
acknowledging God's special providence that I heard him make 
me this invitation. So, after having consulted with my Superior, 
and obtained his permission to accept the offer, I bade adieu to 
my old friends, and stationed a Priest where they might con- 
veniently have recourse to his ministry. He still remains there, to 
the great profit of souls, though in the endurance of many perils. 



xxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

" In my new abode, I was able to live much more quietly and 
more to my taste, inasmuch as nearly all the members of the house 
were Catholics ; and thus it was easier for me to conform to the 
manner of life of the Society, both as regards dress and the 
arrangement of my time." ..." While in this residence (and I 
was there all but two years) I gave much time to my studies. At 
times I made missionary excursions, and not only did I reconcile 
many, but I confirmed some Catholic families in the Faith, and 
placed two Priests in stations where they might be useful to souls." 

Amongst those to whom Father Gerard gave the Spiritual 
Exercises while in this residence, were two brothers of the name 
of Wiseman, who entered the Novitiate of St. Andrew at Rome 
" under the names of Starkie and Standish, which they assumed," 
says Father Gerard, " as a remembrance of me ; for under these 
I passed in the first and second county where I took up my 
residence." The one died there, and the other at St. Omers, not 
long after. Their eldest brother was William Wiseman, of Brad- 
docks, or Broadoaks, a family mansion 1 which stands in the fields 
two miles from Wimbish Church, in Essex. " He had lately come 
to his estate on the death of his father, and had made himself a 
large deer park in it. There he lived like a little king, in ease and 
independence, surrounded by his children, to whom, as well as to 
his wife, he was tenderly attached. As he kept clear of Priests 
from the Seminaries, he lived unmolested, feeling nothing of the 
burden and heat of the day ; for the persecutors troubled chiefly 
those who harboured the Seminarists, not caring to inquire after 
those who kept the old Priests, that is, those who had taken Orders 
before the reign of Elizabeth." . . . " In his house there was 
living my host's mother, a most excellent widow lady, happy in 
her children, but still happier in her private virtues. She had 
four sons and four daughters. These latter, without exception, 
devoted their virginity to God. Two had already joined the holy 
Order of St. Bridget before my arrival," Ann and Barbara ; 2 " and 

1 "It [Braddocks] seems to have been formerly moated round, and two 
sides of the moat remain at present" (Morant, History of Essex, London, 
1768, volii., p. 559). 

2 Their names appear in 1580, among the signatures of the thirty Nuns of 
vSion, then at Rouen, in a petition to the Catholics of England, praying them 
not to allow "the only Religious Convent remaining of our country" to perish 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxxi 

one of these," Barbara, " is even at this day Abbess in Lisbon. I 
sent the two others," Jane and Bridget "to Flanders, where they 
still serve God in the Order of St. Augustine at Louvain. Her 
sons were all pious young men; two," Thomas and John, "died in 
the Society, as was related above ; the third," Robert, "chose the 
army, and was lately slain in a battle with the heretics in Belgium; 
he fell fighting when many around him had surrendered; the 
fourth," William, 1 who married Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund 
Huddleston, Knight, "was the master of that house, who to his 
mother's great joy, had given himself up to every good work." 

Mrs. Wiseman, or " the Widow Wiseman," as it seems more 
natural to call her, had a house of her own at Northend in the 
parish of Great Waltham, which had been in possession of the 
family since the time of Henry VI. On Father Gerard's recom- 
mendation she went to live there, and maintained a Priest, "in 
order that so noble a soul, and one so ready for all good deeds, 
might be a profit not only to herself but to many, as in fact 
she became. Her house was a retreat and no small protection 
both to ours and to other Priests." This valiant Catholic woman 
and her brave son were in bad repute with the persecuting 
authorities, and the Public Record Office preserves many reports 
respecting them. In January, 1594, Justice Young writes to Lord 
Keeper Puckering, 2 "Mrs. Jane Wiseman her house is the only 
resort for these wicked persons. She was at Wisbech with the 
Seminaries and Jesuits there, and she did repent that she had not 
gone bare-footed thither, and she is a great reliever of them, and 
she made a rich vestment and sent it them, as your Lordship 
doth remember as I think, when you and my Lord of Buckhurst 

for want of support (Public Record Office, Domestic, Eliz., vol. 146, n. 114). 
The convent reached Lisbon in 1594, and in 1863 returned to England and 
settled at Spetisbury, near Blandford. It is the only Religious House in 
England that can trace an unbroken descent from a foundation made before 
the Reformation. Sion House was founded by Henry V. in 14 13. 

1 William is said to have been knighted at a later date. Three baronetcies 
were conferred on various branches of the family, William of Canfield (1628), 
Richard of Thundersley (1628), and Sir William Wiseman, Knight, of River- 
hall (1660). The two last mentioned are extinct. The Wisemans of Braddocks 
were descended from John Wiseman, Esq., ancestor of the present baronet, 
who purchased the estate in Northend about 1430, and was the first of the 
family who lived in Essex. 

2 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 247, n. 3. 



xxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

sent to Wisbech to search, for that I had letters which did 
decypher all her doings." She was condemned in 1598 to the 
peine forte et dure for refusing to plead when indicted for 
harbouring Father Jones, alias Buckley, the Franciscan martyr. 
" However, on account of her rank and the good name which 
she had, the Queen's councillors would not let such barbarity be 
practised in London. So they transferred her after her condem- 
nation to a more loathsome prison, and kept her there. They 
wanted at the same time to seize her income for the Queen. 
Now if she had been dead, this income would not have gone to 
the Queen, but to the widow's son, my host. The godly woman 
therefore lived in this prison, reft of her goods but not of her life, 
of which she most desired to be reft. She pined in a narrow and 
filthy cell till the accession of King James, when, as is usual at 
the crowning of a new King, she received a pardon, and returned 
home ; where she now serves the servants of God, and has two of 
ours with her in the house." 

IV. 

While Braddocks was his head-quarters, "I found time," he 
says, "both for study and missionary excursions. I took care 
that all in the house should approach the Sacraments frequently, 
which none before, save the good widow, used to do oftener than 
four times a year. Now they come every week. On feast-days, 
and often on Sundays, I preached in the chapel ; moreover, I 
showed those who had leisure the way to meditate by themselves, 
and taught all how to examine their conscience. I also brought in 
the custom of reading pious books, which we did even at meals, 
when there were no strangers there ; for at that time we Priests 
sat with the rest, even with our gowns on. I had a soutane 
besides and a biretta, but the Superior would not have us use 
these except in the chapel. 

"In my excursions I almost always gained some to God. 
There is, however, a great difference to be observed between these 
counties where I then was, and other parts of England ; for in 
some places, where many of the common people are Catholics, 
and almost all lean towards the Catholic faith, it is easy to bring 
many into the bosom of the Church, and to have many hearers 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxxiii 

together at a sermon. I myself have seen in Lancashire two 
hundred together at Mass and sermon ; and as these easily come 
in, so also they easily scatter when the storm of persecution 
draws near, and come back again when the alarm has blown over. 
On the contrary, in those parts where I was now staying there 
were very few Catholics, but these were of the higher classes ; 
scarcely any of the common people, for they cannot live in peace, 
surrounded as they are by most violent heretics. The way of 
managing in such cases, is first to gain the gentry, then the ser- 
vants : for Catholic masters cannot do without Catholic servants. 

"About this time I gained to God and the Church my 
hostess' brother, the only son of a certain Knight," Henry, son 
of Sir Edmund Huddleston, of Sawston. 1 "I ever after found 
him a most faithful friend in all circumstances. He afterwards 
took to wife a relative 2 in the third degree of the most illustrious 
Spanish Duke of Feria," Dorothy, daughter of Robert first Lord 
Dormer, by his wife, Elizabeth Browne, daughter of Anthony 
first Viscount Montague. "This pious pair are so attached to 
our Priests, that now in these terrible times they always keep 
one in their house, and often two or three." . . . 

"Besides others of less standing whom my host's mother, in 
her great zeal for souls, brought me to be reconciled, she had 
nearly won over a certain great lady, a neighbour of hers. 
Though this lady was the wife of the richest 3 lord in the whole 
county, and sister to the Earl of Essex (then most powerful with 
the Queen), and was wholly given to vanities, nevertheless she 
brought her so far as to be quite willing to speak with a Priest, if 
only he could come to her without being known. This the good 
widow told me. I consequently went to her house openly, and 
addressed her as though I had something to tell her from a 

1 "While the house at Sawston was erecting, Sir Edmund resided on his 
estates in Essex, and served the office of Sheriff for that county in 20, 21, 
[1578-9] and 30 Elizabeth" [1588] (Burke's Landed Gentry, 1850, vol. i., 
p. 602). 

2 The relationship is by affinity and half-blood. Jane, daughter of Sir 
William Dormer, by his first wife, Mary Sidney, married Don Gomez Suarez, 
Count of Feria ; and Dorothy's father, Robert Lord Dormer, was a son of Sir 
William, by his second wife, Dorothy Catesby (Burke's Peerage). 

3 Lady Penelope Devereux, daughter of Walter first Earl of Essex, wife of 
Robert third Lord Rich, afterwards Earl of Warwick. 



xxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

certain great lady her kinswoman, for so it had been agreed. I 
dined openly with her and all the gentry in the house, and spent 
three hours at least in private talk with her. I first satisfied her 
in all the doubts which she laid before me about faith ; next, I 
set myself to stir up her will, and before my departure I so 
wrought upon her, that she asked for instructions how to prepare 
herself for confession, and fixed a day for making it. Nay, she 
afterwards wrote to me earnestly protesting that she desired 
nothing in the world so much as to open to me the inmost 
recesses of her heart. But the judgments of God are a deep 
abyss, and it is a dreadful thing to expose oneself to the 
occasions of sin. Now there was a nobleman 1 in London, who 
had loved her long and deeply ; to him she disclosed her purpose 
by letter, perchance to bid him farewell; but she roused a 
sleeping adder. For he hastened to her, and began to dissuade 
her in every kind of way ; and being himself a heretic, and not 
wanting in learning, he cunningly coaxed her to get him an 
answer to certain doubts of his from the same guide that she 
herself followed; saying that if he was satisfied in this, he too 
would become a Catholic. He implored her to take no step in 
the meantime, if she did not wish for his death. So he filled two 
sheets of paper about the Pope, the worship of Saints, and the 
like. She sent them with a letter of her own, begging me to be so 
good as to answer them, for it would be a great gain if such a 
soul could be won over. He did not, however, write from a wish 
to learn, but rather with the treacherous design of delaying her 
conversion. For he got an answer, a full one I think, to which 
he made no reply. But meanwhile he endeavoured to get her to 
London, and succeeded in making her first postpone, and after- 
wards altogether neglect her resolution. By all this, however, he 
was unwittingly bringing on his own ruin ; for later on, returning 
from Ireland laden with glory, on account of his successful 
administration, and his victory over the Spanish forces that had 
landed there (on which occasion he brought over with him the 

1 Charles Blount, eighth Baron Mountjoy, who in 1603 was created Earl of 
Devonshire. He was married December 26, 1605, to Lady Rich, after her 
divorce, and in the lifetime of her husband, by William Laud, afterwards 
Archbishop of Canterbury. The Earl of Devonshire died in a few months 
after this marriage, April 3, 1 606. 



Life of Father John Gerard, xxxv 

Earl of Tyrone, who had been the most powerful opponent of 
heresy in that country, and most sturdy champion of the ancient 
faith), he was created an Earl, and though conqueror of others, he 
conquered not himself, but was kept a helpless captive by his 
love of this lady. This madness of his caused him to commit 
such extravagances that he became quite notorious, and was 
publicly disgraced. Unable to endure this dishonour, and yet 
unwilling to renounce the cause of it, he died of grief, invoking, 
alas ! not God, but this goddess, 'his angel,' as he called her, and 
leaving her heiress of all his property. Such was his miserable 
end, in bad repute of all men. The lady, though now very rich, 
often afterwards began to think of her former resolution, and 
often spoke of me to a certain Catholic maid of honour that she 
had about her. This latter coming into Belgium about three 
years back to become a Nun, related this to me, and begged me 
to write to her and fan the yet unquenched spark into a flame. 
But when I was setting about the letter, I heard that she had 
been carried off by a fever, not, however, before she had been 
reconciled to the Church by one of ours. I have set this forth at 
some length, that the providence of God with regard to her 
whose conversion was hindered, and His judgment upon him 
who was the cause of the hindrance, may more clearly appear. 

" I used also to make other missionary excursions at this time 
to more distant counties towards the north. On the way I had to 
pass through my native place, and through the midst of my 
kindred and acquaintance ; but I could not do much good there, 
though there were many who professed themselves great friends 
of mine. I experienced in fact most fully the truth of that saying 
of Truth Himself, that no prophet is received in his own country; 
so that I felt little wish at any time to linger among them. It 
happened once that I went to lodge on one of those journeys 
with a Catholic kinsman. 1 I found him in hunter's trim, ready to 
start for a grand hunt, for which many of his friends had met 
together. He asked me to go with him, and try to gain over a 
certain gentleman who had married a cousin of his and mine. I 

1 William Wiseman, Richard Fuhvood, and Ralph Willis were with 
Father Gerard at Lady Gerard's house before Michaelmas, 1592 (P. R. O., 
Domestic, Eliz., vol. 248, n. 103). 



xxxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

answered that some other occasion would be more fit. He 
disagreed with me, however, maintaining that unless I took this 
chance of going with him, I should not be able to get near the 
person in question. I went accordingly, and during the hunt 
joined company with him for whose soul I myself was on the 
hunt. The hounds being at fault from time to time, and ceasing 
to give tongue, while we were awaiting the renewal of this hunters' 
music, I took the opportunity of following my own chase, and 
gave tongue myself in good earnest. Thus, beginning to speak of 
the great pains that we took over chasing a poor animal, I 
brought the conversation to the necessity of seeking an ever- 
lasting kingdom, and the proper method of gaining it, to wit, by 
employing all manner of care and industry; as the devil on his 
part never sleeps, but hunts after our souls as hounds hunt after 
their prey. We said but little on disputed points of faith, for he 
was rather a schismatic than a heretic, but to move his will to act 
required a longer talk. This work was continued that day and 
the day after ; and on the fourth day he was spiritually born and 
made a Catholic. He still remains one, and often supports 
Priests at home and sends them to other people." 



V. 

"My journeys northwards were undertaken for the purpose of 
visiting, and strengthening in the faith, certain persons who there 
afforded no small aid to the common cause. Among them were 
two sisters of high nobility, daughters of an Earl of very old 
family who had laid down his life for the Catholic faith. 1 They 
lived together, and manifested a great desire to have me not 
merely visit them sometimes, but rather stay altogether with them. 
The elder, who had a family, became a pillar of support to that 
portion of our afflicted Church. She kept two Priests with her 
at home, and received all who came to her with great charity. 
There are numbers of Priests in that part of the country, and 
many Catholics, mostly of the poorer sort. Indeed, I was hardly 

1 Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, was beheaded at York, 
in 1572. He had four daughters: Elizabeth, wife of Richard Woodroff;; 
Lucy, wife of Sir Edward Stanley ; Jane, wife of Lord Henry Seymour ; and 
Mary, the second Abbess of the English Benedictine Convent at Brussels. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxxvii 

ever there without our counting before my departure six or seven 
Priests together in her house. Thus she gave great help to religion 
in the whole district during her abode there, which lasted till I 
was seized and thrown into prison; whereupon she was constrained 
by her husband to change her abode and go to London, a pro- 
ceeding which did neither of them any good, and deprived the 
poor Catholics of many advantages. Her sister was chosen by 
God for Himself. I found her unmarried, humble, and modest. 
Gradually she was fitted for something higher. She learnt the 
practice of meditation, and profited so well thereby, that the 
world soon grew vile in her eyes, and Heaven seemed the only 
thing worthy of her love. I afterwards sent her to Father Holt, 
in Belgium. He wrote to me on one occasion about her in these 
terms : ' Never has there come into these parts a countrywoman 
of ours that has given such good example, or done such honour 
to our nation.' She had the chief hand in the foundation of 
the present convent of English Benedictine Nuns at Brussels, 1 
where she still lives, and has arrived to a great pitch of virtue and 
self-denial. She yearns for a more retired life, and has often 
proposed to her director to allow her to live as a recluse, but 
gives in to his reasons to the contrary. 

"At first I used to carry with me on these journeys my altar 
furniture, which was meagre but decent, and so contrived that it 
could be easily carried, along with several other necessary articles, 
by him who acted as my servant. In this way I used to say Mass 
in the morning in every place where I lodged, not however before 
I had looked into every corner around, that there might be no 
one peering in through the chinks. I brought my own things, 
mainly on account of certain Catholics, my entertainers, not 
having yet what was necessary for the Holy Sacrifice. But after 
some years this cause was removed; for in nearly every place 
that I came to they had got ready the sacred vestments before- 
hand. Moreover, I had so many friends to visit on the way, 
and these at such distances from one another, that it was hardly 

1 This venerable Community was transferred in 1794 to Winchester and 
in 1857 to East Bergholt, in Suffolk. This was the first English Convent 
founded after the Reformation, and the first to come to England at the French 
Revolution. 



xxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

ever necessary for me to lodge at an inn on a journey of one 
hundred and fifty miles ; and at last I hardly slept at an inn once 
in two years. 

" I used to visit my Superior," Father Garnett, " several times 
a year, when I wished to consult him on matters of importance. 
Not only I, but all of us used to resort to him twice a year to 
give our half-yearly account of conscience and renew the offering 
of our vows to our Lord Jesus. I always remarked that the others 
drew great profit from this holy custom of our Society. As for 
myself, to speak my mind frankly, I never found anything do me 
more good, or stir up my courage more to fulfil all the duties 
which belong to our Institute, and are required of the workmen 
who till the Lord's vineyard in that country. Besides experiencing 
great spiritual joy from the renewal itself, I found my interior 
strength recruited, and a new zeal kindled within me afterwards 
in consequence ; so that if I have not done any good, it must 
have come from my carelessness and thanklessness, and not 
from any fault of the Society, which afforded me such means 
and helps to perfection. 

"On one occasion we were all met together in the Superior's 
house while he yet resided in the country, 1 and were employed 
in the renovation of spirit. We had had several conferences, 
and the Superior had given each of us some advice in private, 
when the question was started, what should we do if the Priest- 
hunters came suddenly upon us, seeing that there were so many 
of us, and there was nothing like enough hiding-places for all. 
We numbered then, I think, nine or ten of ours, besides other 
Priests our friends, and some Catholics who would also have had 
to seek concealment. The blessed 2 Father Garnett answered, 
' True, we ought not all to meet together, now that our number is 
daily increasing; however, as we are here assembled for the 
greater glory of God, I will be answerable for all till the renova- 
tion is over, but beyond that I will not promise.' Accordingly, on 
the very day of the renovation, though he had been quite uncon- 

1 Father Tesimond, who was present, says that the house was called More- 
croftes, at Uxbridge. Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's Collect., C, fol. 185. 

2 When this was written, the strict laws of Urban VIII. had not yet been 
made, which forbid the introduction of any public religious veneration except 
by the authority of the Holy See. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xxxix 

cerned before, he earnestly warned every one to look to himself, 
and not to tarry without necessity, adding, ' I do not guarantee 
your safety any longer.' Some, hearing this, mounted their 
horses after dinner and rode off. Five of ours and two Secular 
Priests stayed behind. 

"Next morning, about five o'clock, when Father Southwell 
was beginning Mass, and the others and myself were at medi- 
tation, I heard a bustle at the house door. Directly after I 
heard cries and oaths poured forth against the servant for refusing, 
admittance. The fact was, that four Priest-hunters, or pursuivants 
as they are called, with drawn swords were trying to break down 
the door and force an entrance. The faithful servant withstood 
them, otherwise we should have been all made prisoners. But 
by this time Father Southwell had heard the uproar, and, 
guessing what it meant, had at once taken off his vestments 
and stripped the altar; while we strove to seek out eveiything 
belonging to us, so that there might be nothing found to betray 
the presence of a Priest. We did not even wish to leave boots 
and swords lying about, which would serve to show there had 
been many guests though none of them appeared. Hence many 
of us were anxious about our beds, which were still warm, and 
only covered, according to custom, previous to being made. 
Some, therefore, went and turned their beds, so that the 
colder part might deceive anybody who put his hand in to feel. 
Thus, while the enemy was shouting and bawling outside, and 
our servants were keeping the door, saying that the mistress of 
the house, a widow, had not yet got up, but that she was coming 
directly and would give them an answer, we profited by the 
delay to stow away ourselves and all our baggage in a cleverly- 
contrived hiding-place. 

"At last these four leopards were let in. They raged about 
the house, looking everywhere, and prying into the darkest 
corners with candles. They took four hours over the business ; 
but failed in their search, 1 and only brought out the forbearance 
of the Catholics in suffering, and their own spite and obstinacy in 
seeking. At last they took themselves off, after getting paid, 
forsooth, for their trouble. So pitiful is the lot of the Catholics, 
1 Defecerunt scrutantes scrutinio (MS.). 



xl Life of Father John Gerard. 

that those who come with a warrant to annoy them in this or 
in other way, have to be paid for so doing by the suffering 
party instead of by the authorities who send them, as though 
it were not enough to endure wrong, but they must also pay 
for their endurance of it. When they were gone, and were 
now some way off, so that there was no fear of their returning, 
as they sometimes do, a lady came and summoned out of the 
den, not one, but many Daniels. The hiding-place was under- 
ground, covered with water at the bottom, so that I was standing 
with my feet in water all the time. We had there Father Garnett, 
Father Southwell, and Father Ouldcorne (three future martyrs), 
Father Stanny, and myself, two Secular Priests, and two or 
three lay gentlemen. Having thus escaped that day's danger, 
Father Southwell and I set off the next day together, as we 
had come. Father Ouldcorne stayed, his dwelling or residence 
being " at Henlip House, "not far off." 



VI. 

But Father Gerard's good works were now to be interfered 
with by the treachery of a servant. This man's name was 
John Frank, and his deposition taken before Justice Young, 
May 12, 1594, 1 will illustrate Father Gerard's story. The Father 
introduces the traitor without naming him. 

"There is a time for gathering stones together, and a time for 
scattering them. The time had now come for trying the servants 
of God, my hosts, and myself along with them. And that they 
might be more like in their sufferings to their Lord for Whom 
they suffered, God allowed them to be betrayed by their own 
servant, whom they loved. He was not a Catholic, nor a servant 
of the house, but had been once in the service of the second 
brother, who when he crossed the sea recommended him to his 
mother and brother. He lived in London, but often used to visit 
them, and knew nearly everything that happened in either of their 
houses. I had no reason for suspecting one whom all trusted. 
Still I never let him see me acting as a Priest, cr dressed in such 
a way as to give him grounds to say that I was one. However, as 
1 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 248, n. 103. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xli 

he acknowledged afterwards, he guessed what I was from seeing 
his master treat me with such respect ; for he nearly always set 
me two or three miles on my journeys. Often too my host would 
bear me company to London, where we used at that time to lodge 
in this servant's house. I had not yet found by experience, that 
the safest plan was to have a lodging of my own. Such were the 
facts which, as the traitor afterwards stated, gave rise to his 
suspicions. Feeling sure that he could get more than three 
hundred pieces of silver for the sale of his master, he went to the 
magistrates and bargained to betray him. They, it seems, sent 
him for a while to spy out who were Priests, and how many 
there were of them haunting the houses of the widow and her son. 

"The widow's house was first searched. The Priest that 
usually dwelt there was then at home, but escaped for that time 
by taking refuge in a hiding-place. As for the pious widow, 
they forced her to go to London, there to appear before the 
Judges who tried cases concerning Catholics. At her appearance 
she answered with the greatest courage, more like a free woman 
than a grievously persecuted prisoner. She was thrown into gaol." 
From Frank we learn that the search was made Dec. 26, 1593. 

" He saith that one Brewster, a Priest, being a tall man with a 
white flaxen beard, was at old Mrs. Wiseman's house at Northend 
from Michaelmas till Christmas last, and was in the house when 
the pursuivants were there on Wednesday the 26th of December 
last, hid in a privy place in a chamber. And William Sumeld, 
Mr. William Wiseman's man, came thither for him on Thursday 
in the Christmas week, at five o'clock in the night, and carried 
him to Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks (as this 
examinate heard). And afterwards Suffield came again and rode 
with old Mrs. Wiseman to the Lord Rich's." The seat of Lord 
Rich was at Lee Priory, not far from Northend. The widow, 
therefore, was not arrested on this occasion. 

Of the search, Justice Young made the following report to 
Lord Keeper Puckering. 1 "Right honourable, my humble duty 
remembered, this is to advertize your honour that the bearers 
hereof, Mr. Worsley and Mr. Newall," pursuivants who were 
Topcliffe's chief aiders in the searches made in the houses of 

1 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 247, n. 3. 
d 



xlii Life of Father John Gerard, 

Catholics, " hath been in Essex at Mrs. Wiseman's house, being a 
widow, and there they found a Mass a preparing, but the Priest 
escaped, but they brought from thence Robert Wiseman her son, 1 
and William Clarke, a lawyer, and Henry Cranedge, a physician, 
and Robert Foxe, who doth acknowledge themselves all to be 
recusants, and do deny to take an oath to answer truly to such 
matters as shall touch the Queen's Majesty and the State, where- 
upon I have committed them close prisoners, one from another. 
Also they found in the said house one Nicholas NorrTooke, Samuel 
Savage, and one Daniell, servants unto the said Mrs. Wiseman, 
and one Mrs. Ann Wiseman, a widow, and Mary Wiseman her 
daughter, and Elizabeth Cranedge, and Alice Jenings, wife of 
Richard Jenings, and Mary Wiseman, daughter to Mr. George 
Wiseman, of Upminster, and is in Commission of the Peace, and 
all these in the said house are recusants ; wherefore it may stand 
with your lordship's good liking, I think it were well that they 
were all sent for hither to be examined, for that the said Mrs. Jane 

Wiseman " and then follows the remembrance of old Mrs. 

Wiseman's wish that her pilgrimage to the Priests at Wisbech had 
been barefooted, that we have already given. 

" Item, he saith," to return to Frank's examination, " that Mr. 
Gerard, alias Tanfield, alias Staunton, the Priest Jesuit, was at 
Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks all the Christmas 
last, and Richard Fulwood was his man attending on him, and 
was two years coming and going thither, and was also with Mr. 
Wiseman in Lancashire a little before Michaelmas was twelve 
months, as Ralph Willis, who then attended on Master Gerard, 
told this examinate, and were at the Lady Gerard's house, she 
being at home. 

" Item, he saith that he hath seen Mr. Gerard dine and sup 
ordinarily with Mr. Wiseman at his own table in his house at 
Braddocks about twelve months past, and that at Michaelmas was 
twelve months they were both together in the examinate's house," 
— Father Gerard has just told us that they used to go there till he 
got a lodging of his own — " and Mr. Ormes, the tailor of Fleet- 

1 ' ' Robert Wiseman, her other son, is also an obstinate recusant and will 
by no means take the oath. He is prisoner in the Clink " (Young, Apr. 14, 
1594. P. R. O., Dom. EIiz. t vol. 248, n. 68). 



Life of Father John Gerard. xliii 

street, was there with him, and did take measure of Mr. Gerard 
by the name of Mr. Tanfield, to make him garments. 

"Item, he saith that the said Gerard lay one night at the 
Lady Mary's in Blackfriars (as he thinketh) a little before Easter 
last, 1 and Ralph Willis, his servant, lay that night at this exami- 
nate's house, and. that Richard Fulwood, since his imprisonment 
in Bridewell at Easter last, wrote a letter and sent it from 
Bridewell to the Lady Mary's, and there this exanimate received 
it and went down with it to Mr. Gerard, who was at Mr. William 
Wiseman's house at Braddocks all the Easter last, and hidden in 
the house while the pursuivants were there, which letters aforesaid 
this exanimate did deliver to Ralph Willis, who carried them 
immediately to Mr. Gerard. And this exanimate saw the letters 
in Mr. Gerard's hands, and heard him read them. Wherein 
Fulwood wrote that he expected torture every day, and Mr. 
Gerard wished that he might bear some of Fulwood's punish- 
ment." . . . 

" Item, he saith that the satin doublet and velvet hose which 
were found in Middleton's house at the apprehension of Mr. 
Gerard, were Mr. Wiseman's, and the ruffs were Mrs. Wiseman's ; 
and if they had not been taken, the apparel should have been 
carried by this exanimate the next day to Mr. Wiseman in the 
Counter. 

" Item, he saith that about three weeks before Michaelmas last 
or thereabouts, this examinate was sent by old Mrs. Wiseman to 
Mr. Gerard, from Northend to London, with Scudamore, alias 
John Wiseman, the Priest, 2 and a boy named Richard Cranishe, 
of the age of 16 years, son of Robert Cranishe, and afterwards 



1 The Lady Mary Percy, of whom mention has been previously made. 
She "was a devout Catholic, and had come to London a little before my 
imprisonment, to get my help in passing over to Belgium, there to consecrate 
herself to God. She was staying at the house of her sister," who had lost the 
faith, Jane, the wife of Lord Hemy Seymour, with whose Protestant servants 
Father Gerard was confronted later on. "I dined with them on the day the 
witnesses mentioned. It was Lent ; and they told how their mistress ate meat, 
while the Lady Mary and I ate nothing but fish " [infr. p. lxviii). 

2 He had previously said that "between Midsummer and Michaelmas last, 
Scudamore the Priest was there by the name of John Wiseman and stayed 
there one night." John was apparently the name of the younger Jesuit, who 
died in the Novitiate at Rome. 



xliv Life of Father John Gerard. 

Mrs. Jane Wiseman 1 and Mrs. Bridget Wiseman, sisters to Mr. 
William Wiseman, came up also; and William Savage, tailor r 
servant to old Mrs. Wiseman, and Richard Fulwood, Mr. 
Gerard's man, attended on them, and John Jeppes came up 
at the same time; all of which persons (saving Jeppes) lay 
at this examinate's house a week. And then Scudamore, 
the two gentlewomen, Cranishe, Savage, and this examinate, 
embarked themselves at Gravesend in one Motte his bark, 
and went over to Middleborough, and there lay at one Charles 
his house about a fortnight, and then went to Antwerp, and 
this examinate returned back again, but whether Mr. William 
Wiseman did know of their going over or no he cannot 
tell." . . . 

"Item, he saith that Nicholas Owen, who was taken in bed 
with Mr. Gerard the Jesuit, was at Mr. Wiseman's house at 
Christmas was twelve months, and called by the name of Little 
John and Little Michael, and the cloak that he wore was Mr.. 
Wiseman's cloak a year past, and was of sad green cloth with, 
sleeves, caped with tawny velvet and little gold strips turning on 
the cape. And the said Owen was at Mr. Emerson's at Felsted 
while Mrs. Wiseman lay there." . . . 

Such is Frank's examination, taken in May, 1594, and it will 
throw much light on the subsequent narrative. On the 14th of 
April, Justice Young sent to Lord Keeper Puckering 2 " the names 
of them that were found in Mr. Wiseman's house : John 
Fulwood, Richard Fulwood, Richard Wallis, William Wallis,. 
William Suffield, Ralph Williamson, John Stratforde. These 
men are all recusants, and will not take an oath to the Queen's 
Majesty, nor to answer to anything. One Thomas was appre- 
hended when his master was taken, and he fled away with his 
master's best gelding and a handful of gold that his master gave 

1 Amongst the letters seized at Braddocks in a search apparently in 1592, 
was one "sent by Dolman the Priest to Mrs. Wiseman, dated 28 die Jun., 
advertizing her of her son Thomas and her son John their healths, and of his . 
going to Wisbech, and that he was sorry her daughter Jane had no warning 
whereby she might have wrote an Epistle in Latin to the Priests at Wisbech, 
that they might have understood her zeal" (P. R. O., Do?n. Eliz,, vol. 243,. 

n. 95)- 

2 P. R. O., Dom. Eliz,, vol. 248, n. 68. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xlv 

him. All these were servants 1 to Mr. William Wiseman, who is a 
continual receiver of all Seminary Priests, and went to Wisbech 
to visit the Priests and Jesuits there, and since his imprisonment 
there was a Seminary Priest in his house which escaped away 
from the Justices and pursuivants and left his apparel behind 
him." This was, as we shall see, Father Gerard himself, and 
later on he was made to try on the clothes thus found, and 
" they were just a fit." All this was to prove Mr. Wiseman guilty 
of harbouring a Priest, "which," Father Gerard says, "they were 
never able to do." 

Father Garnett, in a letter 2 to Father Persons at Rome, dated 
Sept. 6, 1594, thus describes the capture of the servants. "The 
Friday night before Passion Sunday" [March 15] "was such a 
hurly-burly in London as never was seen in man's memory ; no, 
not when Wyatt was at the gates. A general search in all London, 
the Justices and chief citizens going in person ; all unknown 
persons taken and put in churches till the next day. No Catholics 
found, but one poor tailor's house at Golding-lane end, which was 
esteemed such a booty as never was got since this Queen's days. 
The tailor and divers others there taken lie yet in prison, and 
some of them have been tortured. That mischance touched us 
near ; they were our friends and chiefest instruments. That very 
night had been there Zong John with the little beard, once your 
pupil " [in the margin is written John Gerard], " if I had not 
more importunately stayed him than ever before. But soon after 
he was apprehended, being betrayed we know not how; he will be 
stout I doubt not. He hath been very close, but now is removed 
from the Counter to the Clink, where he may in time do much 
good. He was glad of Mr. Homulus 3 his company, but he had 
been taken from him and carried to Newgate, whence he hopeth 
to redeem him again." 

1 Young adds, " Mr. Wiseman and his mother had many more servants, 
both men and maids, all which were recusants, and none of them would come 
to church, to the great offence and scandal of all Her Majesty's good subjects 
in that country." 

2 Stonyhurst MSS. P., ii., p. 550. 

3 Mr. "Homulus" is Ralph Emerson, the Lay-brother, of whom Father 
Campion wrote to the General, "Homulus meus et ego" {infr. p. lxx). It 
was of the greatest consequence that no names to strike the eye should appear 
in letters, in case they were intercepted. 



xlvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

Father Gerard tells the story thus. " The hidden traitor,, 
wholly unknown to his master, was watching his chance of 
giving us up without betraying his own treachery. At first he 
settled to have me seized in a house " in Golding-lane " which 
had been lately hired in London to answer my own and my 
friends' purposes. From his master's employing him in many 
affairs, he could not help knowing the place which his master had 
hired for my use. Consequently he promised the magistrates to 
tell them when I was coming, so that they might surround the 
house during the night with their officers, and cut off my escape. 
The plan would have succeeded, had not God provided otherwise 
through an act of obedience. 

" My Superior had lately come to live four or five miles from 
London. 1 I had gone to see him, and had been with him a day 
or two, when, having business in London, 'I wrote to those who 
kept the house to expect me on such a night, and bring in 
certain friends whom I wanted to see. The traitor,, who was 
now often seen in the house, which belonged ostensibly to his 
master, learnt the time, and got the Priest-hunters to come there 
at midnight with their band. 

"Just before mounting my horse to depart, I went to take 
leave of my Superior. He would have me stay that night. I told 
him my business, and my wish to keep my appointment with my 
friends ; but the blessed Father would not allow it, though, as he 
said afterwards, he knew no reason, nor was it his wont to act in 
this manner. Without doubt he was guided by the inspiration of 
God j for early next morning we heard that some Papists had been 
seized in that house, and the story ran that a Priest was among 
them. The fact was that my servant, Richard Fulwood, was 
caught trying to hide himself in a dark place, there being as 
yet no regular hiding-places, though I meant to make some. As. 
he cut a good figure, and neither the traitor nor any one else that 
knew him was there, he was taken for a Priest. Three Catholics- 
and one schismatic were seized and thrown into prison. The 
latter was a Catholic at heart, but did not refuse to go to the 
heretics' churches. As he was a trusty man, I employed him as 

1 Probably White Webbs in Enfield Chase, called "Dr. Hewick's house" 
(P. R. O., Gunpowder Plot Book, n. 70). 



Life of Father John Gerard. xlvii 

keeper of the house, to manage any business in the neighbour- 
hood. At their examination they all showed themselves steadfast 
and true, and answered nothing that could give the enemy any 
inkling that the house belonged to me instead of to my host. It 
was well that it was so ; for things would have gone harder with 
the latter had it been otherwise. The magistrates sent him a 
special summons, in the hope that my arrest would enable them 
to make out a stronger case against him. As soon as he arrived 
in London he went straight to the house, never dreaming what 
had happened there, in order to treat with me as to the reason of 
his summons, and how he was to answer it. So he came and 
knocked at the door. It was opened to him at once ; but, poor 
sheep of Christ, he fell into the clutches of wolves, instead of the 
arms of his shepherd and friend. For the house had been broken 
into the night before, and there were some ministers of Satan still 
lingering there, to watch for any Catholics that might come, 
before all got scent of the danger. Out came these men then ; 
the good gentleman found himself ensnared, and was led prisoner 
to the magistrates. ' How many Priests do you keep in your 
house ? ' ' Who are they ? ' were the questions poured in upon 
him on all sides. He made answer, that harbouring Priests was a 
thing punishable with death, and so he had taken good care not 
to run such a risk. On their still pressing him, he said that he 
was ready to meet any accusation that could be brought against 
him on this head. However, they would not hint anything about 
me, because though disappointed this time, they still hoped to 
catch me later, as the traitor was as yet unsuspected. 

"My host had on hand a translation of a work of Father 
Jerome Platus, On the Happiness of a Religious State. He had 
just finished the second part, and had brought it with him to see 
me about it. When he was seized, these papers were seized too. 
Being asked what they were, he said it was a book of devotion. 
Now the heretics are wont to pry into any writings that they find, 
because they are afraid of anything being published against them- 
selves and their false doctrine. Not having time to go on with 
the whole case, they were very earnest about his being answerable 
for those papers. He said that there was nothing contained in 
them against the State or against sound teaching ; and offered on 



xlviii Life of Father John Gerard, 

the spot to prove the goodness and holiness of everything that 
was there set down. In so doing, as he told me afterwards, he 
felt great comfort at having to answer for so good a book. He 
was thrown into prison, and kept in such close confinement that 
only one of his servants was allowed to go near him, and that 
was the traitor. Knowing that his master had no inkling of 
his bad faith, they hoped by his means to find out my retreat, 
and seize my person much sooner than they could otherwise have 
done." 

The following is Mr. Wiseman's examination, taken before 
Sir Edward Coke and others, in which will be found the defence 
of Father Jerome Platus, which Father Gerard so accurately 
remembered, and embodied in his Narrative. 

"The examination 1 of William Wiseman, of Wymbyshe, in 
the county of Essex, gentleman, taken the 19th day of March, in 
the thirty-sixth year of Her Majesty's reign [1594]. 

"He saith that he hath the murrey" [mulberry-coloured] 
"beads (showed unto him upon his examination) of a gentlewoman 
and friend of his, and that he will not tell her name, for that she 
is a Catholic, as he termeth her, and saith that he hath had these 
beads about a year and a quarter, and received the same at 
Wymbyshe aforesaid, at his house there, called Broadoaks, and 
saith now, upon better advertisement, that his sister, Bridget 
Wiseman, now being beyond sea, did get the said beads and 
string the same for him, this examinate, but where she had them 
he cannot tell. Being demanded whether he knew a book 
(showed to him upon his examination) called Breviarium 
Romanwn, he denieth that he knoweth the book or whose it 
is. He supposeth that a letter showed unto him upon his 
examination, beginning, 'Dear son, this day,' &c. &c, and 
ending with ' Commendation to all my friends,' is his mother's 
own handwriting, and sent unto him, this examinate, to his house 
aforesaid to-morrow shall be a seven-night. 

"And saith that a friend of his hath hired the house in 
Golding-lane, where he was apprehended, but denieth to tell 
his name for charity sake, but saith that his friend hired it of 
1 P. R. O., Dom. Eliz. t vol. 248, n. 36. 



Life of Father John Gerard, xlix 

Mr. Tute, dwelling in the next house unto it, and saith that he 
hired it the last term. And saith that his friend did hire the said 
house for him, this examinate, and his mother, and saith that he 
never was at the house before, but came to the said house by- 
such description as his friend made to him of it, and that this 
examinate came thither on Saturday at night to lie there, and his 
man (whose name he will not tell, 1 is Richard Fulwood) provided 
him by his commandment and appointment a bed and furniture 
belonging to the same in the said house, and knoweth not 
whether the bedding was in the house before he, this examinate, 
hired the same house or no, but thinketh that some of the 
bedding that now is there was in the house before. 

" He saith that the said Richard Fulwood hath served him 
about Shrovetide last was two years. 

" And saith that since he, this examinate, was confined, he 
hath used John Fulwood, brother to the said Richard Fulwood, 
in travelling about his business. 

"And saith that his servant, Thomas Barker, after he was 
apprehended and under arrest, was sent by this examinate to his 
inn, to return to him again as he saith, and further saith that 
before the said Thomas Barker went off out of the constable's 
custody, he, this examinate, laid two angels in the headborough's 
hand, and to take them to his own use if his servant did not 
return again. He thinketh he is gone to this examinate's house 
and denieth that he gave any message to the said Thomas Barker, 
save only that he should signify to his housekeeper where he this 
examinate was, and saith that Thomas Barker hath dwelt with 
him above a year past, and was commended to him by a friend of 
his being a Catholic, and refuseth to tell his name ; and saith that 
both his said servants have been recusants ever since they dwelt 
with him. 

"And confesseth that a book intituled Hiero7iymi Plati de 
Societate Jesu de bono statu religionis is his own, and that he 
caused the same to be bought at Cawood's shop in Paul's 
Churchyard, and saith that the book containeth nothing but true 
doctrine, and that he translated it through with his own hand — 

1 In the original the words "is Richard Fulwood" are interlined, and 
' ' he will not tell " underlined or erased. 



1 Life of Father John Gerard. 

which was found and yet remaineth — the book; and that his 
servant Richard Fulwood bought the same, and hath had it or 
the like by the space of these two years and more, and saith that 
certain of his friends 1 coming to him this examinate, he the said 
examinate commended the same book to them to be a good book, 
and delivered the same book to them, to be seen and read of, 
and saith within the said two years he this examinate bought 
divers of the said book and hath sent of the same to some of the 
examinate's friends, as namely to the Priests at Wisbech, that is 
to say, Father Edmonds, and to no other by name but to him, but 
generally to the Priests, which is about a year past : and that the 
said Father Edmonds returned thanks [in] answer to the exami- 
nate that he liked the book very well, and this book he sent and 
received answer by his said servant Thomas Barker, who was 
born in Norwich, and saith that this examinate hath read over 
the first and half the second of the said book unto the 12th 
chapter, and that he dare to take upon him to defend so much to 
be sound and true : and saith that this examinate was with Father 
Edmonds at Wisbech about Michaelmas last was twelve months, 
and there saw and spake with him both privately and in company. 

"W. Wiseman. 
"Examined by 

"Edw. Coke. 

"Will. Danyell. 

"Edw. Vaughan. 

" R. Watson. 

" Rvc. Young." 

VII. 

" On learning the seizure of our house at London," Father Gerard 
continues, "and my host's imprisonment, I went down to his 
country house to settle with his wife and friends what was to be 
done, and put all our effects in safe keeping. As we wanted the 
altar furniture for the approaching Easter, we sent very little of it 
to our friends. Of course I could not stay away from my enter- 
tainers at so holy a time, especially as they were in sorrow and 
trouble. In Holy Week the treacherous servant came from 
1 Being learned. Erased in Orig. 



Life of Father John Gerard. li 

London with a letter from his master, wherein the latter set forth 
all that had befallen him, the questions that had been put to him, 
and his answers. This letter, though seen, had been let pass for 
the credit of the bearer, to give him a chance of seeing whether I 
was in the house at this solemn season. He brought me another 
letter from my servant, whose capture I spoke of above. When 
from the traitor's information they knew him to be my servant, 
hoping to wrest from him the disclosure of his friends and 
abettors, they kept him in solitary confinement in the loathsome 
prison of Bridewell. The purport of the letter was how he had 
denied everything, 1 what threats had been held out to him, and 
what his sufferings were in prison. He had, he said, hardly 
enough black bread to keep him from starving ; his abode was a 
narrow strongly-built cell, in which there was no bed, so that he 
had to sleep sitting on the window-sill, and was months without 
taking off his clothes. There was a little straw in the place, but 
it was so trodden down and swarming with vermin that he could 
not lie on it. But what was most intolerable to him was their 
leaving all that came from him in an open vessel in that narrow 
den, so that he was continually distressed and almost stifled by 
the smell. Besides all this, he was daily awaiting an examination 
by torture. 

"While reading the letter to my hostess in presence of the 
traitor, I chanced to say at this last part, ' I wish I could bear 
some of his tortures, so that there might be less for him.' It was 
these words of mine that let us know later on who was the traitor, 
and author of all our woes. For when I was taken and questioned, 
and declared I was quite unacquainted with the family, those who 
were examining me forgot their secret, and cried out, ' What lies 
you tell ! — did you not say so-and-so before such a lady, as you 
read your servant's letter?' But I still denied it, giving them 

1 It was of the last importance for the friends of a prisoner to know, if 
possible, what replies he had really given, not only that they might take 
measures, if necessary, for their own safety, but also that they might know 
how far to go in their own answers when summoned. The persecutors were 
constantly in the habit of publishing all sorts of pretended replies which they 
said had been given by prisoners in their secret examinations, so that prisoners 
seized every possible opportunity of communicating the truth to their friends 
often, as we shall see, in the most ingenious way. 



lii Life of Father John Gerard. 

good reasons, however, why, even if it had been true, I could 
and ought to have denied it. 1 But to take up the thread of my 
story. 

" The traitor on his return to London informed our enemies of 
everything. Forthwith they sent two of their best messengers, or 
pursuivants as they call them, to two gentlemen of the county, 
who were Justices of the Peace, bidding them search the house 
carefully with their men. The traitor also returned on Easter 
Sunday, on pretence of bringing a fresh letter from London, but 
in reality to play into the hands of our enemies and acquaint them 
with our plans. On Easter Monday" [April i, 1594], "on account 
of the dangers that threatened us, we rose before our usual hour, 
and were trying to get ready for Mass before sunrise, when suddenly 
we heard the noise of horses galloping, and of a multitude of men 
coming to surround the house and cut off all escape. Seeing 
what was going to happen, we had the doors kept fast. Mean- 
while the ornaments were pulled off the altar, the hiding-places 
thrown open, my books and papers carried into them, and an 
effort was made to hide me and all my effects together. I wanted to 
get into a hiding-place near the dining-room, as well to be further 
from the chapel and the more suspicious part of the house, as 
because there was store of provisions there, to wit, a bottle of 
wine, and certain light but strengthening food, such as biscuit 
made to keep, &c. Moreover, I hoped to hear our enemies talk, 
wherein there might be something, perchance, which bore upon 



1 It will be noticed, both from this passage and many others, that the 
persecuted Catholics followed that common doctrine of theologians, maintained 
also by many Protestant moralists, that an unjust oppressor has no right, by 
the law of God, to exact or expect true answers from his victims, if such true 
answers would help his unjust designs, except where the question is of the 
faith of the prisoner. It is quite likely that many will be startled now-a-days 
at such direct denials, owing to our present freedom from those extreme 
circumstances in which such denials were then made. Their own lives were at 
stake, or those of other innocent persons, whom it would have been a sin to 
betray ; and for those persons' sake, if they held such denials to be lawful, they 
were bound to make them. The English law, with a tenderness then unknown, 
would now protect a man from all efforts to make him criminate himself. 
The persecutors themselves, who showed so great indignation at their victims' 
falsehoods, told lies systematically in order to ensnare the Catholics ; a thing 
which no code of morality ever countenanced, whether Catholic or Protestant. 
We propose to discuss this subject more fully in the sequel. 



Life of Father John Gerard. liii 

our interests. These reasons, then, moved me to choose that 
place, and, in sooth, it was very fit and safe for hiding in. But 
God so willed it, that the mistress of the house should in nowise 
agree. She would have me go into a place near the chapel, where 
the altar furniture could sooner be stowed with me. I yielded, 
though there was nothing there for me to eat in case the search 
should last long. I went in, then, after everything was safe that 
needed putting away. 

"Scarcely had I done so, when the searchers broke down the 
door, and forcing their way in, spread through the house with 
great noise and racket. Their first step was to lock up the 
mistress of the house in her own room with her daughters ; and 
the Catholic servants they kept locked up in divers places in 
the same part of the house. They then took to themselves the 
whole house, which was of a good size, and made a thorough 
search in every part, not forgetting even to look under the tiles 
of the roof. The darkest corners they examined with the help of 
candles. Finding nothing whatever, they began to break down 
certain places that they suspected. They measured the walls with 
long rods, so that if they did not tally they might pierce the part 
not accounted for. Thus they sounded the walls and all the 
boards, to find out and break into any hollow places that there 
might be. 

" They spent two days in this work without finding anything. 
Thinking, therefore, that I had gone on Easter Sunday, the two 
magistrates went away on the second day, leaving the pursuivants 
to take the mistress of the house, and all her Catholic servants of 
both sexes, to London, to be examined and imprisoned. They 
meant to leave some who were not Catholics to keep the house, 
the traitor being one of them. The good lady was pleased at this, 
for she hoped that he would be the means of freeing me, and 
rescuing me from death : for she knew that I had made up my 
mind to suffer and die of starvation between two walls, rather than 
come forth and save my own life at the expense of others. In 
fact, during those four days that I lay hid, I had nothing to eat 
but a biscuit or two and a little quince jelly, which my hostess 
had at hand and gave me as I was going in. She did not look 
for any more, as she supposed that the search would not last 



liv Life of Father John Gerard. 

beyond a day. But now that two days were gone, and she was 
to be carried off on the third with all her trusty servants, she 
began to be afraid of my dying of sheer hunger. She bethought 
herself then of the traitor, who she heard was to be left behind. 
He had made a great fuss and show of eagerness in withstanding 
the searchers, when they first forced their way in. For all that, 
she would not have let him know of the hiding-places, had she 
not been in such straits. Thinking it better, however, to rescue 
me from certain death, though it was at her own risk, she charged 
him, when she was taken away, and every one had gone, to go 
into a certain room, call me by my wonted name, and tell me that 
the others had been taken to prison, but that he was left to deliver 
me. I would then answer, she said, from behind the wainscot 
where I lay concealed. 

" The traitor promised to obey faithfully, but was faithful only 
to the faithless, for he unfolded the whole matter to the ruffians 
who had been left behind. No sooner had they heard it, than 
they called back the magistrates who had departed. These 
returned early in the morning and renewed the search. They 
measured and sounded everywhere, much more carefully than 
before, especially in the chamber above mentioned, in order to 
find out some hollow place. But finding nothing whatever during 
the whole of the third day, they purposed on the morrow to strip 
off all the wainscot of that room. Meanwhile they set guards in all 
the rooms about, to watch all night lest I should escape. I heard 
from my hiding-place the pass-word which the captain of the band 
gave to his soldiers, and I might have got off by using it, were it 
not that they would have seen me issuing from my retreat : for 
there were two on guard in the chapel where I got into my 
hiding-place, and several also in the larg^ wainscotted room which 
had been pointed out to them. 

" But mark the wonderful providence of God. Here was I in 
my hiding-place. The way I got into it was by taking up the 
floor, made of wood and bricks, under the fire-place. The place 
was so constructed that a fire could not be lit in it without 
damaging the house ; though we made a point of keeping wood 
there, as if it were meant for a fire. Well, the men on the night- 
watch lit a fire in this very grate, and began chatting together 



Life of Father John Gerard. lv 

close to it. Soon the bricks, which had not bricks but wood 
underneath them, got loose, and nearly fell out of their places, as 
the wood gave way. On noticing this and probing the bottom 
with a stick, they found that the bottom was made of wood; 
whereupon they remarked that this was something curious. I 
thought that they were going there and then to break open the 
place and enter ; but they made up their minds at last to put off 
further examination till next day. Meanwhile, though nothing was 
further from my thoughts than any chance of escaping, I besought 
the Lord earnestly, that if it were for the glory of His Name, I 
might not be taken in that house, and so endanger my enter- 
tainers ; nor in any other house, where others would share my 
disaster. My prayer was heard. I was preserved in that house 
in a wonderful manner ; and when, a few days after, I was taken, 
it was without prejudice to any one, as shall be presently seen. 

" Next morning, therefore, they renewed the search most care- 
fully, everywhere except in the top chamber which served as a 
chapel, and in which the two watchmen had made a fire over my 
head, and had noticed the strange make of the grate. God had 
blotted out of their memory all remembrance of the thing. Nay, 
none of the searchers entered the place the whole day, though it 
was the one that was most open to suspicion, and if they had 
entered, they would have found me without any search ; rather, I 
should say, they would have seen me, for the fire had burnt a 
great hole hi my hiding-place, and had I not got a little out of the 
way, the hot embers would have fallen on me. The searchers, 
forgetting or not caring about this room, busied themselves in 
ransacking the rooms below, in one of which I was said to be. 
In fact, they found the other hiding-place to which I thought of 
going, as I mentione'd before. It was not far off, so I could hear 
their shouts of joy when they first found it But after joy comes 
grief; and so it was with them. The only thing that they found, 
was a goodly store of provision laid up. Hence they may have 
thought that this was the place that the mistress of the house 
meant ; in fact, an answer might have been given from it to the 
call of a person in the room mentioned by her. 

" They stuck to their purpose, however, of stripping off all the 
wainscot of the other large room. So they set a man to work 



lvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

near the ceiling, close to the place where I was : for the lower 
part of the walls was covered with tapestry, not with wainscot. So 
they stripped off the wainscot all round, till they came again to the 
very place where I lay, and there they lost heart and gave up the 
search. My hiding-place was in a thick wall of the chimney, 
behind a finely laid and carved mantel-piece. They could not 
well take the carving down without risk of breaking it. Broken, 
however, it would have been, and that into a thousand pieces, 
had they any conception that I could be concealed behind it. 
But knowing that there were two flues, they did not think that 
there could be room enough there for a man. Nay, before this, 
on the second day of the search, they had gone into the room 
above, and tried the fire-place through which I had got into my 
hole. They then got into the chimney by a ladder to sound with 
their hammers. One said to another in my hearing, ' Might there 
not be a place here for a person to get down into the wall of the 
chimney below, by lifting up this hearth?' 'No,' answered one 
of the pursuivants, whose voice I knew, ' you could not get down 
that way into the chimney underneath, but there might easily be 
an entrance at the back of this chimney.' So saying, he gave the 
place a kick. I was afraid that he would hear the hollow sound 
of the hole where I was. But God, Who set bounds to the sea, 
said also to their dogged obstinacy, ' Thus far shalt thou go, and 
no further ; ' and He spared His sorely-stricken children, and gave 
them not up into their persecutors' hands, nor allowed utter ruin 
to light upon them for their great charity towards me. 

"Seeing that their toil availed them naught, they thought that 
I had escaped somehow, and so they went away at the end of 
four days, leaving the mistress and her servants free. The yet 
unbetrayed traitor stayed after the searchers were gone. As soon 
as the doors of the house were made fast, the mistress came to 
call me, another four-days-buried Lazarus, from what would have 
been my tomb had the search continued a little longer. For I 
was all wasted and weakened, as well with hunger, as with want 
of sleep, and with having to sit so long in such a narrow place. 
The mistress of the house, too, had eaten nothing whatever during 
the whole time, not only to share my distress, and to try on 
herself how long I could live without food, but chiefly to draw 



Life of Father John Gerard. lvii 

down the mercy of God on me, herself, and her family, by this 
fasting and prayer. Indeed, her face was so changed when I 
came out, that she seemed quite another woman, and I should 
not have known her but for her voice and her dress. After 
coming out, I was seen by the traitor, whose treachery was still 
unknown to us. He did nothing then, not even send after the 
searchers, as he knew that I meant to be off before they could be 
recalled." 

VIII. 

" As soon as I had taken a little refreshment and rest, I set out 
and went to a friend's house, where I kept still for a fortnight. 
Then knowing that I had left my friends in great distress, I 
proceeded to London to aid and comfort them. I got a safe 
lodging with a person of rank. 1 A year ago it had been Father 
Southwell's abode, before his seizure and imprisonment in the 
Tower of London, where he now was. I wanted, however, to 
hire a house where I might be safe and unknown, and be free to 
treat with my friends ; for I could not manage my business in a 
house that was not my own, especially in such a one as I then 
dwelt in. I had recourse to a servant of Father Garnett, named 
Little John, 2 an excellent man and one well able to help me. He 
it was that used to make our hiding-places ; in fact, he made the 
one to which I owed my safety. Thanks to his endeavours, I 
found a house well suited for my purpose, and settled with my 
landlord about the rent. Till the house was furnished, I hired 
a room in my landlord's own house. 3 There I resolved to pass 
two or three nights in arranging my affairs, getting letters from 
my friends in distress, and writing back letters of comfort in 
return. Thus it was that the traitor got sent to the place, which 

1 This was the unfortunate Countess of Arundel, whose husband, Philip 
Howard, Earl of Arundel, was at this time (1594) in the tenth year of his 
imprisonment in the Tower. He died the following year in the same prison, 
the noblest victim to the jealous and suspicious tyranny of Elizabeth, non sine 
veneni suspicione, as his epitaph still testifies. 

2 This holy martyr's true name was Nicholas Owen. Father Gerard gives 
an interesting account of him in the Narrative of the Powder Plot {infra 
p. 182). 

3 We learn from Frank that it was called Middleton's. 



lviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

was only known to a small circle of friends. It was God's will 
that my hour should then come. 

" One night, when Little John and I had to sleep in that 
room, the traitor had to bring a letter that needed an answer, and 
he left with the answer about ten o'clock. I had only come in 
about nine, sorely against the will of the lady, my entertainer, 
who was uncommonly earnest that I should not leave her house 
that night. Away went the traitor then, and gave information to 
the Priest-hunters both when and where he had left me. They 
got together a band, and came at midnight to the house, just as I 
had gone to sleep. Little John and I were both awakened by the 
noise outside. I guessed what it was, and told John to hide the 
letter received that night in the ashes where the fire had been. 
No sooner had he done so and got into bed again, than the noise 
which we had heard before seemed to travel up to our room. 
Then some men began knocking at the chamber-door, ready to 
break it in if it was not opened at once. There was no exit 
except by the door where our foes were ; so I bade John get up 
and open the door. The room was at once filled with men, 
armed with swords and staves; and many more stood outside, 
who were not able to enter. Among the rest stood two pursui- 
vants, one of whom knew me well, so there was no chance of my 
passing unknown. 

"I got up and dressed, as I was bid. All my effects were 
searched, but without a single thing being found that could do 
harm to any man. My companion and I were then taken off to 
prison. By God's grace we did not feel distressed, nor did we 
show any token of fear. What I was most afraid of was, that they 
had seen me come out of that lady's house, and had tracked me 
to the room that I had hired ; and so that the noble family that 
had harboured me would suffer on my account. But this fear was 
unfounded; for I learnt afterwards that the traitor had simply 
told them where he had left me, and there it was that they 
found me. 

"The pursuivant who knew me, kept me in his house two 
nights; either because those who were to examine me were 
hindered from doing so on the first day, or (as it struck me 
afterwards) because they wished first to examine my companion, 



Life of Father John Gerard. lix 

Little John. I noticed the first night, that the room where I was 
locked up was not far from the ground ; and that it would be 
easy to let myself down from the window by tearing up the bed- 
clothes and making a rope of them. I should have done so that 
very night, had I not heard some one stirring in the next room. 
I thought that he was put there to watch me, and so it turned 
out. However, I meant to carry out my plan the night after, if 
the watchman went away; but my keeper forestalled me ; for to 
save the expense of a guard, he put irons on my arms, which 
prevented me from bringing my hands together and from sepa- 
rating them. Then in truth I was more at ease in mind, though 
less in body ; for the thought of escape vanished, and there came 
in its place a feeling of joy that I had been vouchsafed this 
suffering for the sake of Christ, and I thanked the Lord for it as 
well as I could. 

"Next day I was brought before the Commissioners, at the 
head of whom was one who is now Lord Chancellor of the 
realm. 1 He had been a Catholic, but went over to the other side, 
for he loved the things of this world. 

" They first asked me my name and calling. I gave them the 
name I passed by; whereupon one called me by my true name, 
and said that I was a Jesuit. As I was aware that the pursuivant 
knew me, I answered that I would be frank and open in every- 
thing that belonged to myself, but would say nothing that could 
affect others. So I told them my name and calling, to wit 
that, though most unworthy, I was a Priest of the Society of 
Jesus. 

'"Who sent you into England? ' they asked. 

" 'The Superiors of the Society.' 

'"To what end?' 

'"To bring back stray souls to their Creator.' 

"'No, no,' said they; 'you were sent for matters of State; 
and to lure people from the obedience of the Queen to the 
obedience of the Pope.' 

1 Sir Thomas Egerton, afterwards Lord Ellesmere and Viscount Brackley, 
was Attorney General at this date, 1594, and Lord Chancellor in 1609, when 
this was written. His having been a Catholic is not mentioned by his 
biographers. 



lx Life of Father John Gerard. 

"'As for matters of State,' I replied, 'we are forbidden to 
have anything to say to them, as they do not belong to our 
Institute. This prohibition, indeed, extends to all the members of 
the Society ; but on us Missioners it is particularly enjoined in a 
special instruction. As for the obedience due to the Queen and 
the Pope, each is to be obeyed in that wherein they have juris- 
diction; and one obedience does not clash with the other, as 
England and all Christian realms have hitherto experienced.' 

"'How long have you been doing duty as a Priest in this 
country ? ' 

" 'About six years.' 

" ' How, and where, did you land, and where have you lived 
since your landing ? ' 

'"I cannot in conscience answer any of these questions,' I 
replied, ' especially the last, as it would bring mischief on others ; 
so I crave pardon for not satisfying your wishes.' 

"'Nay,' said they, 'it is just on these heads that we chiefly 
desire you to satisfy us, and we bid you in the Queen's name to 
do so.' 

'"I honour the Queen,' said I, 'and will obey her and you 
in all that is lawful, but here you must hold me excused: for 
were I to mention any person or place where I have been lodged, 
the innocent would have to suffer, according to your laws, for 
the kind service they have done me. Such behaviour on my 
part would be against all justice and charity, and therefore I 
never will be guilty of it.' 

" ' You shall do so by force, if not by goodwill.' 

" ' I hope,' I said, ' by the grace of God, it shall not be as 
you say. I beg you, therefore, to take this my answer : that 
neither now nor at any other time will I disclose what you 
demand of me.' 

" Thereupon they wrote a warrant for my imprisonment, and 
gave it to the pursuivants, bidding them take me to prison. As 
we were leaving, he who is now Chancellor said that I must be 
kept in close confinement, as in cases of high treason. 'But 
tell the gaolers,' he added, ' to treat him well on account of his 
birth.' It seems, however, that the head gaoler gave orders at 
variance with this humane recommendation : for I was lodged 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxi 

in a garret, 1 where there was nothing but a bed, and no room 
to stand up straight, except just where the bed was. There was 
one window always open, through which foul air entered and 
rain fell on to my bed. The room door was so low, that I 
had to enter, not on my feet, but on my knees, and even then 
I was forced to stoop. However, I reckoned this rather an 
advantage, inasmuch as it helped to keep out the stench (certainly 
no small one) that came from the privy close to my door, which 
was used by all the prisoners in that part of the house. I was 
often kept awake, or woke up, by the bad smell. 

"In this place I passed two or three days of true repose. 
I felt no pain or anxiety of mind, and enjoyed, by the blessing 
of God, that peace which the world does not and cannot give. 

"On the third or fourth day, I was taken for a second 
examination to the house of a magistrate called Young. He 
it was who had the management of all the searches and perse- 
cutions that the Catholics in the neighbourhood of London had 
to endure; and it was to him that the traitor had given his 
information. Along with him was another, who had for many 
years conducted the examination by torture, Topcliffe by name. 
He was a man of cruelty, athirst for the blood of the Catholics, 
and so crafty and cunning, that all the wily wit of his companion 
seemed abashed into silence by his presence \ in fact, the Justice 
spoke very little during the whole examination. I found the 
two of them alone : Young in a civilian's dress, Topcliffe with 
a sword by his side and in a Court dress. He was an old man, 
grown grey in wickedness. Young began questioning me as to 
my place of abode, and the Catholics that I knew. I answered 
that I neither could nor would make disclosures that would get 
any one into trouble, for reasons already stated. He turned then 
to Topcliffe and said, ' I told you how you would find him.' 

" Topcliffe looked frowningly at me and said, ' Do you know 

1 Father Gerard was first confined in the Counter, as he tells us later. 
Father Garnett in one of his letters speaks of the Counter as "a very evil 
prison and without comfort." There were in London three prisons of this 
name : the Counter, a part of the parish church of St. Margaret in Southwark ; 
the Counter in the Poultry, "some four houses west from the parish church 
of St. Mildred" ; and the new Counter in Wood-street, removed from Bread- 
street in 1555 (Stow's Sui'vcy of Lo?idoji, ed. Thorns, pp. 99, 131). 



lxii Life of Father John Gerard, 

me? I am Topcliffe, of whom I doubt not you have often 
heard.' 

" He meant this to frighten me. To heighten the effect, he 
had laid his sword on the table near his hand, as though he 
were ready to use it on occasion. But he failed certainly, and 
caused me not the least alarm; and whereas I was wont to 
answer with deference on other occasions, this time I did quite 
the contrary, because I saw him making a show to scare me. 
Finding that he could get no other manner of reply from me 
than what I had given, he took a pen and wrote an artful and 
malicious form of examination. 

" ' Here,' says he, ' read this paper. I shall show it to the 
Privy Council, that they may see what a traitor you are to the 
realm, and how manifestly guilty.' 

" The contents of the paper were as follows : ' The examinate 
was sent by the Pope and the Jesuit Persons, and coming 
through Belgium there had interviews with the Jesuit Holt and 
Sir William Stanley ; thence he came into England, on a political 
errand, to beguile the Queen's subjects, and lure them from their 
obedience to their Sovereign. If, therefore, he will not disclose 
the places and persons with whom he has lived, it is presumed 
that he has done much mischief to the State,' &c. 

" On reading this, I saw that I could not meet so many 
falsehoods with one single denial; and as I was desirous that 
he should show my way of answering to the Council, I said that 
I also wished to answer in writing. Hereat Topcliffe was over- 
joyed, and cried out, ' Oh ! now you are a reasonable man •' but 
he was disappointed. He had hoped to catch me in my words, 
or at least to find out my handwriting, so that some of the 
papers found in the houses of the Catholics might be proved 
to be mine. I foresaw this, and therefore wrote in a feigned 
hand as follows : ' I was sent by my Superiors. I never was in 
Belgium. I have not seen Father Holt since the time that I 
left Rome. I have not seen Sir William Stanley since he left 
England with the Earl of Leicester. I am forbidden to meddle 
with matters of State ; I never have done, and never will do so. 
I have tried to bring back souls to the knowledge and love of 
their Creator, and to make them show obedience to the laws 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxiii 

of God and man; and- I hold this last point to be a matter 
of conscience. I humbly crave that my refusal to answer 
anything concerning the persons that I know, may not be set 
down to contempt of authority ; seeing that God's commandment 
forces me to follow this course, and to act otherwise would be 
against justice and charity.' 

"While I was writing this, the old man waxed wroth. He 
shook with passion, and would fain have snatched the paper 
from me. 

" ' If you don't want me to write the truth,' said I, ' I'll not 
write at all.' 

"'Nay,' quoth he, 'write so-and-so, and I'll copy out what 
you have written.' 

" 'I shall write what /please,' I answered, 'and not what you 
please. Show what I have written to the Council, for I shall 
add nothing but my name.' 

" This I signed so near the writing, that nothing could be put 
in between. The hot-tempered man, seeing himself disappointed, 
broke out into threats and blasphemies. ' I'll get you put into 
my power, and hang you in the air, and show you no mercy; 
and then I shall see what God will rescue you out of my hands.' 

"From the abundance of his heart he poured forth these evil 
words ; but by this he raised my hopes, just the opposite effect to 
what he wanted. 1 Neither then nor since have I ever reckoned 
aught of a blasphemer; and, in sooth, I have found by experi- 
ence, that God increases the confidence of His servants, when 
He allows strife to rise up against them. I gave, therefore, this 
short answer: 'You will be able to do nothing without the 
leave of God, Who never abandons those that hope in Him. 
The will of God be done.' 

" Thereupon Young called the gaoler who had brought me, to 
take me back to prison. As he was leading me off, Topcliffe 
addressed him and bade him put irons on my legs. Both then 

1 Even the gentle Father Southwell could not but show his estimate of this 
reprobate man. We translate the following from Father More's History of the 
English Province, 1. v., n. 15. "Though he readily answered the questions 
of others, yet if Topcliffe interposed he never deigned him a reply ; and when 
asked the cause of this, he answered : ' Because I have found by experience 
that the man is not open to reason.' " 



lxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

fell a-chiding him for having brought me by himself, fearing 
perchance lest I should escape from his hands. When I had crept 
back to my little closet, my legs were garnished according to order. 
The man seemed grieved that put the fetters on. For my part, 
instead of grief I felt very much joy, such is God's goodness to 
the most unworthy of His creatures. To pay the man for the kind 
turn that he had done me, I gave him some money for his job; 
and told him it was no punishment to suffer in so good a cause." 
Father Garnett described this act of faith and courage in the 
following terms in a letter to the General of the Society, which we 
translate from the Italian : " This Father has always been very 
courageous, and when he was first taken, and the gaoler put 
very heavy irons on his legs, he gave him some money. The 
following day, the gaoler, thinking that if he took off the irons 
doubtless he would give him more, took them off, but got nothing. 
After some days he came to put them on again, and received a 
reward, and then taking them off did not get a farthing. They 
went on playing thus with one another several times, but at last 
the gaoler, seeing that he did not give him anything for taking 
off his irons, left him for a long time in confinement, so that the 
great toe of one foot was for almost two years in great danger of 
mortification. So your Reverence sees that in these times the 
courage of true Christian soldiers is not wanting. May our Lord 
give him perseverance, and to those who follow him the grace to 
imitate him." 1 

IX. 

" Here I stayed upwards of three months. During the first 
month I made from memory, as well as I could, the Spiritual 
Exercises ; giving four and sometimes five hours a day to medi- 
tation. God lavished His goodness on me throughout, and I had 
proof that He opens His bounteous hands to His servants most of 
all when He has closed up the sources of earthly comfort to them. 
" When I was quietly lodged in prison, without being brought 
out or undergoing any further examination for many days, they 
examined and put to the torture Richard Fulwood, whom the 
traitor had pointed out as my servant, and Little John, who had 
1 Stonyhurst MSS., Angl A., vol. ii., n. 27; P., vol. ii., f. 604. 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxv 

been taken with me. Unable, either by coaxing or bribery, to 
draw anything from them that would compromise others, they 
had recourse to threats, and then to force : but the force of the 
Holy Ghost in them was too great to be overcome by men. 
They were both hung up for three hours together, having their 
arms fixed into iron rings, and their bodies hanging in the air ; a 
torture which causes frightful pain and intolerable extension of 
the sinews. It was all to no purpose; no disclosure could be 
wrested from them that was hurtful to others ; no rewards could 
entice, no threats or punishments force them, to discover where I 
or any of ours had been harboured, or to name any of our 
acquaintances or abettors. 

" Here I ought not to pass over in silence God's great 
goodness and mercy to me, the most unworthy of all His servants. 
It was shown in this, that there was not a single traitor, either 
among those that were then seized in my house or in the house of 
the good gentleman, my entertainer ; no, nor even among those 
that, in the other persecutions which by God's providence after- 
wards befel me, were imprisoned, tortured, and treated with the 
utmost cruelty. Not one of them, I say, ever yielded, but all, by 
the grace of God, held steadfast through everything. Those 
who were my companions, or the servants I intrusted with 
commissions to the gentlemen of my acquaintance, as they 
necessarily knew all my friends, would have been able to do very 
great mischief, and enrich themselves by ruining others : yet not 
one of them ever caused any harm either by word or deed, 
wittingly or unwittingly; nor, as far as I remember, did they 
ever give one cause of complaint. On many of them God, in 
His goodness, poured the choicest gifts of His Holy Spirit. 

"John Lasnet, the first that I had, died in Spain a Lay- 
brother of the Society. The second that I had for some little 
while was Michael Walpole, who is now a Priest of the Society, 
and labouring in England. The third was named [Ralph] 
Willis. He had a vocation, so I sent him to study in the 
Seminary at Rhemes, where he went through his course of 
philosophy. His behaviour there was orderly, but afterwards at 
Rome he joined a turbulent party, thus returning evil for good. 
He was the only one of my helpmates that walked at all awry. 



lxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

He was, however, made Priest, and sent into England. There he 
was seized, and condemned to death for the Faith, and answered 
unflinchingly before the tribunal • but instead of losing his life, he 
was kept some time in prison; whence he effected his escape, 
and is still labouring in England. 

" After him I had a godly man of the name of John Sutton, 
the brother of three Priests, one of whom was a martyr, and 
another died in the Society. Father Garnett kept him in his 
house for many years, up to the time of his own arrest. 

" The next that I had was Richard Fulwood, of whom I have 
spoken above. He managed to make his escape, and during my 
imprisonment was employed by Father Garnett until that Father's 
happy death. He managed nearly all his master's business with 
strangers, not without the knowledge of the persecutors, who 
offered a handsome sum for his capture, and were still more 
anxious about it after Father Garnett was taken. In fact, they 
gave the poor man no peace until they drove him into banish- 
ment, where he yet remains, doing good service to our mission 
notwithstanding. 

" After him I had John Lilly, a man well known at Rome ; he 
died lately in England, a Lay-brother of the Society. Next came 
two other godly men, whom I did not take to keep, but merely as 
makeshifts till I could get a man every way suited to my wants, 
and endowed with a religious spirit. I found one at length ; and 
when I quitted England, I took him with me, and left him at 
St. Omers. There he was well grounded in Greek and Latin, and 
became a great favourite with all the Fathers, who sent him into 
Spain with the highest recommendations. He still remains there, 
growing always in virtue and learning. Not long ago I had a 
letter from the Father Prefect of Studies, in which he tells me 
that he is the best student in his course. 

" Such were the mercies of God vouchsafed to His unworthy 
servant, in answer to my constant prayers. Many gentlemen 
intrust themselves and their interests to our servants' good faith 
no less than to ours; so that there could be no greater let or 
hindrance to our good work, than any treachery on their part; 
indeed, the defection of such a one would be likely to cause the 
most frightful ruin among Catholics. For if one servant, and he 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxvii 

neither a Catholic nor one of the household, like the traitor of 
whom I have spoken, made such havoc in his master's family, 
what mischief could a Priest's servant do to the many persons of 
high rank that had harboured him and his master! God has 
hitherto kept me free from the like betrayal. 

" To return to my story. They could wrest nothing out of 
Little John and Fulwood; and none of my host's Catholic 
servants would make any avowal, or own that he knew me. 
Seeing that they could bring no witness against him, they 
gradually lost the hope they had of seizing his chattels and 
revenue. 

" Sometimes they would bring me up for examination, when 
they had anything new against me. Once they called me to try on 
a suit of clothes, which had been found in my host's house, and 
which the traitor said were mine. I put them on, and they were 
just a fit, for the truth was that they had been made for me; 
however, I would not own them, nor admit them to be mine. 
Hereupon Young flew into a passion, called me a headstrong 
and unreasonable man. He was so barefaced as to add ' How 
much more sensible is Southwell, who after long wilfulness is now 
ready to conform, and wishes to treat with some man of learning.' 

" ' Nay,' I answered, ' I will never believe that Father South- 
well wishes to treat with any one from any wavering in his faith, 
or to learn what to believe from a heretic; but he might 
perchance challenge any heretic to dispute with him that dared, 
as Father Campion did, and as many others would do if you 
would let them, and appoint proper umpires.' 

" Then Young seized hold of the book, and kissing it, cried : 
' I swear upon this book that Southwell has offered to treat, with 
a view of embracing our religion.' 

" ' I do not believe he ever did so,' said I. 

" ' What,' said an officer of the Court, ' do you not believe his 
oath?' 

" ' No,' was my reply, ' I neither can nor will believe him; for 
I have a better opinion of Father Southwell's firmness than of 
his truthfulness; since perhaps he thinks that he is allowed to 
make this statement to beguile me.' 

" ' No such thing,' said Young; 'but are you ready to conform 



lxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

if he has done so ? ' (To conform, in their sense, means to 
embrace their deformed religion.) 

"' Certainly not,' I answered; 'for if I keep myself free 
from heresy and heretical meetings, it is not because he or any 
man on earth does the same ; but because to act otherwise would 
be to deny Christ, by denying His faith, which may be done by 
deed as well as by word. This is what our Lord forbade under 
pain of a heavier punishment than man can inflict, when He said, 
" He that shall deny Me before men, him will I deny before My 
Father Who is in Heaven." ' 

"To this the heretic answered not a word, save that I was 
stiff-necked (a name that was applicable rather to himself), and 
bade them take me back to prison. 

"Another time I was sent for to be confronted with three 
witnesses, servants of a certain nobleman named Lord Henry 
Seymour, son of the Duke of Somerset. They were heretics, and 
avouched that on a certain day I had dined with their mistress 
and her sister, while they, among others, waited at table. The 
two sisters were daughters of the Earl of Northumberland. One 
of them was a devout Catholic, and had come to London a little 
before my imprisonment to get my help in passing over to 
Belgium, there to consecrate herself to God. She was staying at 
the house of her sister, the wife of the aforesaid lord. She 
wanted to bring back this sister to the Catholic faith, which the 
latter had abandoned after her good father's death. I dined with 
them on the day the witnesses mentioned. It was in Lent ; and 
they told how their mistress ate meat, while the Lady Mary and I 
ate nothing but fish. Young flung this charge in my teeth with 
an air of triumph, as though I could not help acknowledging it, 
and thereby disclosing some of my acquaintances. I answered 
that I did not know the men whom he had brought up. 

" ' But we know you,' said they, ' to be the same that was at 
such a place on such a day.' 

" ' You wrong your mistress,' said I, ' in saying so. I, however, 
will not so wrong her.' 

" ' What a barefaced fellow you are ! ' exclaimed Young. 

" ' Doubtless,' I answered, ' were these men's statements true. 
As for me, I cannot in conscience speak positively in the matter, 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxix 

for reasons that I have often alleged ; let them look to the truth 
and justice of what they say.' 

" Young then, in a rage, remanded me to prison. 

"After three months some of my friends made efforts to have me 
removed to another more comfortable prison, seeing that nothing 
could be proved against me except my Priesthood ; and this they 
obtained by means of a handsome bribe to Young. So they sent 
to my prison, which was called the Counter, and took off my 
fetters. These were rusty when they were first put on ; but by 
wearing and moving about in them every day, I had rendered 
them quite bright and shining. My cell was so small, that a man 
who had his legs free, might take the whole length of it in three 
steps. I used to shuffle from one end to the other, as well for 
exercise, as because the people underneath used to sing lewd 
songs and Geneva psalms ; and I wanted to drown by the 
clanking of my chain a noise that struck still more harshly on 
my ear. My fetters then being removed, and my expenses paid 
(which were not great, as I had had little but butter and cheese 
to season my bread withal), they brought me before Young, who, 
making a show of anger, began to chide and upbraid me more 
than was his wont, and asked me whether I was yet willing to 
acknowledge where and with whom I had lived. I answered that 
I could not do so with a safe conscience, and therefore would not. 

" ' Well then,' said he, ' I will put you in closer confinement, 
where you shall be safer lodged, and have iron bars before your 
window.' 

"Forthwith he wrote a warrant, and sent me to the prison 
that is called the Clink. 1 He made all this show, that he might 
not appear to have taken money for what he did. The fact was, 
that the prison to which I was now sent was far better than the 
other, and more comfortable for all prisoners ; but to me it 
afforded especial comfort, on account of the great number of 
Catholics whom I found there. 

1 This was a prison in Southwark, adjoining the palace of the Bishops of 
Winchester. In Father More's Latin Narrative it appears as Atriiwi Winto- 
niense. " It was a small place of confinement on the Bankside, called the 
Clink from being the prison of the ' Clink liberty or manor of Southwark,' 
belonging to the Bishops of Winchester" (Brayley, History of Surrey, vol. 5, 
P. 348). 



lxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

" They could not now hinder me from approaching the Sacra- 
ments, and being comforted in divers other ways, as I shall 
afterwards show ; for when I had been there a few months, the 
place was by God's grace so improved, that as for discharging all 
the duties of the Society, I should never wish to be at large in 
England, provided I could always live in the like prison and 
after the like fashion. 1 So my being shut up in the Clink seemed 
like a change from Purgatory to Paradise. Instead of lewd songs 
and blasphemies, the prayers of some Catholic neighbours in the 
next room met my ear. They came to my door to cheer me up, 
and showed me a way by which we could open a free communi- 
cation. This was through a hole in the wall, which they had 
covered with a picture, that it might not be seen. By means of 
it they gave me on the morrow a letter from my friends ; and at 
the same time furnished me with materials for writing back. I 
wrote, therefore, to Father Garnett, and told him the whole truth 
of what had happened to me, and what manner of replies I had 
made, as I have set forth above. 

"I also confessed, and received the Most Holy Body of 
Christ, through that same hole. But I had not to do this long, 
for the Catholics contrived to fashion a key that would open my 
door; and then every morning, before the gaoler got up, they 
brought me to another part of the prison, where I said Mass, 
and administered the Sacraments to the prisoners lodged in 
that quarter; for all of them had got keys of their cells. 

" I had just such neighbours as I would have picked out had 
I had my choice. My next-door neighbour was our Brother, 
B.alph Emerson, of whom Father Campion, in a letter to Father 
General, makes mention in these terms, ' My little man and I.' 
He was indeed small in body, 2 but in steadfastness and endurance 



1 Father Garnett writes, Nov. 19, 1594: "Sir Thomas Wilks goeth into 
Flanders, as it is thought for peace ; whereupon the arraignment of the three 
Jesuits, Southwell, Walpole, and Gerard, is stayed. Gerard is in the Clink, 
somewhat free ; the other two so close in the Tower that none can hear from 
them" (Stonyhurst MSS., P., ii., p. 550). 

2 "There is a little fellow called Ralph, who is in England for Father 
Persons, is a great dealer for all the Papists ; he is a very slender, brown little 
fellow" (Confession of Ralph Miller. P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 173, 
n. 64). 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxi 

he was great. He had been already many long years in bonds, 
ever keeping godly and devout, like a man of the Society : and 
after my coming to the Clink, he remained six or seven years 
more. At last he was sent off, with other confessors of Christ, to 
the Castle of Wisbech, where he was attacked with palsy. One 
half of his body was powerless, so that he could not move about 
or do the least thing for himself. He lived, notwithstanding, to 
add by his patience fresh jewels to the crown that awaited him. 
Being driven into banishment with the same company, he came 
to St. Omers, and died a holy death there, to the great edification 
of the by-standers. I found this good Brother my next neighbour 
in the Clink; overhead I had John Lilly, whom God's providence 
had shut up there for his own good and mine. I had other godly 
men around me, all true to their faith. 

" These having the free run of the prison, any one might visit 
them without danger. I arranged, therefore, that when any of 
my friends came to the prison, they should ask to see one of 
these ; and thus they got to have talk with me without its being 
noticed. I did not, however, let them into my room, but spoke 
to them through the aforesaid hole. 

"Sol passed some time in great comfort and repose; striving 
the while to gather fruit of souls, by letter and by word of mouth. 
My first gaoler was a sour-tempered man, who watched very 
closely to see that there were no unlawful doings amongst us. 
This called for great wariness on our part, to avoid discovery ; 
but ere long God summoned him from the wardenship of the 
prison, and from the prison of his body at the same time. 

" His successor was a younger man of a milder turn. What 
with coaxing, and what with bribes, I got him not to look into 
our doings too nicely, and not to come when he was not called 
for, except at certain fixed times, at which he always found me 
ready to receive him. 

" I used the liberty thus granted me for my neighbour's profit. 
I began to hear many confessions, and reconciled many persons 
to the Catholic Church. Some of them were heretics, but the 
greater number were only schismatics, as I could deal more 
freely with these than with the others. It was only after long 
acquaintance, and on the recommendation of trusty friends, that 



lxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

I would let any heretics know how little restraint was put upon 
me. I do not remember above eight or ten converts from heresy, 
of whom four entered Religion. Two joined our Society, and the 
other two went into Other Orders. As for schismatics, I brought 
back a goodly number of them to the bosom of the Church. 
Some became Religious : and others gave themselves to good 
works in England during the persecution. Of these last was 
Mr. John Rigby, afterwards martyred." 1 . . . 



X. 

"During my stay in this prison, I found means to give the 
Spiritual Exercises. The gaoler did as I wished him to do ; he 
never came to me without being called, and never went into my 
neighbours' rooms at all. So we fitted an upper chamber to serve 
as a chapel, where six or seven made the Exercises, all of whom 
resolved to follow the counsels of Christ our Lord, and not one of 
them flinched from his purpose. 

" I found means also to provide for a very pressing need. 
Many Priests of my acquaintance, being unable to meet with safe 
lodgings when they came to London, used to put up at inns till 
they had settled the business that brought them. Again, as my 
abode was fixed, and easy to find, the greater part of the Priests 
that were sent from the Seminaries abroad had instructions to 
apply to me, that through me they might be introduced to their 
Superior, and might receive other assistance at my hands. Not 
having always places prepared, nor houses of Catholics to which 
I could send them, I rented a house and garden in a suitable 
spot, and furnished it, as far as was wanted, by the help of my 
friends. Thither I used to send those who brought letters of 
recommendation from our Fathers, and who I was assured led a 
holy life and seemed well fitted for the mission. I maintained 
them there till I had supplied them, through the aid of certain 
friends, with clothes and necessaries, sometimes even with a 
residence, or with a horse to go to their friends and kinsmen in 
the country. I covered all the expenses of this house with the 

1 John Rigby suffered at St. Thomas' Watering, June 21, 1600, for having 
been reconciled by a Catholic Priest. 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxiii 

alms that 'were bestowed on me. I did not receive alms from 
many persons, still less from all that came to see me ; indeed, 
both out of prison and in prison, I often refused such offers. 
I was afraid that if I always accepted what was offered, I might 
scare from me souls that wished to treat with me on the business 
of their salvation ; or receive gifts from those that could either 
ill afford it, or would afterwards repent of it. I made it a rule, 
therefore, never to take alms except from a small number of 
persons, whom I knew well. Most of what I got was from those 
devoted friends, who offered me not only their money but them- 
selves, and looked upon it as a favour when I took their offer. 

" I gave charge of this house to a very godly and discreet 
matron of good birth, whom the Lord honoured with martyrdom. 1 
Her maiden name was Heigham, but she bore the name of Line 
from her deceased husband. Both she and her husband were 
beloved by God, and had much to suffer for His sake. This 
lady's father was a Protestant, and when he heard of his 
daughter's becoming a Catholic, he withheld the dower which 
he had promised her. He disinherited one of his sons for the 
same reason. This son, called William Heigham, is now in 
Spain, a Lay-brother of the Society. It is twenty-six years since 
I knew him. He was then a well-educated gentleman, finely 
dressed like other high-born Londoners. He supported a Priest 
named Thomson, whom I afterwards saw martyred. As soon as 
his father learned that he, too, had become a Catholic, he went 
and sold his estate, the rents of which were reckoned at 6,000 
florins [600/.] yearly, that it might not pass to his son. The son was 
afterwards arrested for the Faith ; and he and his Priest together, 
if I mistake not, were thrown into the prison of Bridewell, where 
vagrants are shut up and put to hard labour under the lash. 
I paid him a visit there, and found him toiling at the tread-mill, 
all covered with sweat. On recovering his freedom he hired 
himself out as a servant to a gentleman, that had to wife a 

1 Ann Line executed at Tyburn, Feb. 27, 1601, for harbouring a Catholic 
Priest. " She told her confessor, some years before her death, that Mr. 
Thomson (Blackburn), a former confessor of hers, who ended his days by 
martyrdom in 1586, had promised her, that if God should make him worthy 
of that glorious end he would pray for her, that she might obtain the like 
happiness " (Challoner, from Champney's MS. History). 

/ 



lxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

Catholic lady whom I knew. She intrusted her son to his care : 
he taught the boy the ground-work of the Latin tongue, besides 
giving him lessons on the harp, which he himself touched 
admirably. I went to see him in this situation, and had a long 
talk with him about his call to his present state. 

" Mistress Line, his sister, married a good husband and a 
staunch Catholic. He had been heir to a fine estate ; but his 
father or uncle (for he was heir to both) sent a message from his 
death-bed to young Line, then a prisoner for the Faith, asking him 
to conform and go to some heretical church for once ; otherwise 
he would have to give up his inheritance to his younger brother. 
1 If I must either give up God or the world,' was his courageous 
answer, ' I prefer to give up the world, for it is good to cleave 
unto God.' So both his father's and his uncle's estate went to his 
younger brother. I saw this latter once in his elder brother's 
room, dressed in silk and other finery, while his brother had on 
plain and mean clothes. This good man afterwards went into 
Belgium, where he obtained a pension from the King of Spain, 
part of which he sent to his wife ; and thus they lived a poor and 
holy life. His death, which happened in Belgium, left his widow 
friendless, so that she had to look to Providence for her support. 
Before my imprisonment she had been charitably taken by my 
entertainers into their own house. They furnished her with board 
and lodging, and I made up the rest. 

"She was just the sort of person that I wanted as head of the 
house that I have spoken of, to manage the money matters, take 
care of the guests, and meet the inquiries of strangers. She had 
good store of charity and wariness, and in great patience she 
possessed her soul. She was nearly always ill from one or other 
of many divers diseases, which purified her and made her ready 
for Heaven. She used often to say to me : ' Though I desire 
above all things to die for Christ, I dare not hope to die by the 
hand of the executioner; but perhaps the Lord will let me be 
taken some time in the same house with a Priest, and then be 
thrown into a chill and filthy dungeon, where I shall not be able 
to last out long in this wretched life.' Her delight was in the 
Lord, and the Lord granted her the desires of her heart. 

" When I was rescued out of prison, she gave up the manage- 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxv 

ment of my house ; for then so many people knew who she was, 
that her being in a place was enough to render it unsafe for me. 
So a room was hired for her in another person's house, where 
she often used to harbour Priests. One day (it was the Feast 
of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin) she let in a great many 
Catholics to hear Mass, a thing which she would never have 
done in my house. Good soul, she was more careful of me 
than of herself. Some neighbours noticed the throng, and called 
the constables. They went upstairs into the room, which they 
found full of people. The celebrant was Father Francis Page, 
S.J., who was afterwards martyred. 1 He had pulled off his 
vestments before the Priest-hunters came in ; so that they could 
not readily make out which was the Priest. However, from the 
Father's grave and modest look, they thought that he must be 
their man. Accordingly, they laid hold of him, and began 
questioning him and the others also. No one would own that 
there was a Priest there ; but as the altar had been found ready 
for Mass, they acknowledged that they had been waiting for a 
Priest to come. While the Catholics and their persecutors were 
wrangling on this point, Father Francis Page, taking advantage 
of some one's opening the door, got away from those that held 
him and slipped out, shutting the door behind him. He then 
went upstairs to a place that he knew, where Mrs. Line had had 
a hiding-place made, and there he ensconced himself. Search 
was made for him the whole house over, to no purpose. 

"So they took Mrs. Line and the richer ones of the party 
to prison, and let the others go on bail. God lengthened out 
the martyr's life beyond her expectation. It was some months 
before she was brought to trial, on a charge of harbouring and 
supporting Priests. To the question of ' guilty or not guilty,' she 
made no direct answer, but cried out in a loud voice, so that 
all could hear her: 'My lords, nothing grieves me, but that I 
could not receive a thousand more.' 2 She listened to the sentence 
of death with great show of joy and thanksgiving to the Lord 
God. She was so weak, that she had to be carried to Court in 

1 Francis Page, S.J., suffered at Tyburn, April 20, 1602, for his Priest- 
hood. 

2 These words are given in the MS. in English. 



lxxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

a chair, and sat there during the whole of the trial. After her 
return to prison, a little before her death, she wrote to Father 
Page, who had escaped. The letter is in my hands at present 
She disposed therein of the few things that she had, leaving to 
me a fine large cross of gold that had belonged to her husband. 
She mentioned me thrice in the letter, calling me her Father. 
She also left some few debts which she begged me to see paid. 
Afterwards she bequeathed me her bed by word of mouth. I 
wanted to purchase it from the gaolers, who had plundered 
everything found in her cell after her death; but I could only 
get the coverlet, which I used ever after during my stay in 
London, and reckoned it no small safeguard. 

" Being arrived at the place of punishment, some preachers 
wanted to tease her, as usual, with warnings to abandon her 
errors ; but she cut them short, saying, ' Away ! I have no 
dealings nor communion with you.' Then, kissing the gallows 
with great joy, she knelt down to pray, and kept on praying 
till the hangman had done his duty. So she gave up her soul 
to God, along with the martyr Father Filcock, S.J., 1 who had 
often been her confessor, and had always been her friend. Her 
martyrdom, however, happened six or seven years after the time 
of which I am now speaking. She managed my house for three 
years, and received therein many holy Priests." . . . 

"I always had a Priest residing in this house, whom I used 
to send to assist and console my friends, as I was unable, during 
my imprisonment, to visit them myself. The first I had there 
was Father Jones, a Franciscan Recollect, afterwards martyred, 2 
but then newly arrived in England." ..." After him I received 
another Priest, lately arrived from Spain, and formerly known to 
me, Robert Drury by name. He was of gentle birth and well 
educated, and could consequently associate with gentlemen 
without causing any suspicion. I introduced him, therefore, to 
my chief friends; and he assisted them well and zealously for 

1 Roger Filcock, S.J., alias Arthur, executed for his Priesthood, with 
Mark Barkworth, alias Lambert, O.S.B., and Ann Line, at Tyburn, Feb. 27, 
1601. 

2 John Jones, alias Buckley, suffered at St. Thomas' Watering, July 12, 
1598; and Robert Drury at Tyburn, Feb. 26, 1607, for being Priests in 
England. 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxvii 

two years and more that he tarried in my house. This good 
Priest also God chose to be His witness and martyr." . . . 

"In that house of mine, while I was in prison, there lived 
awhile one of our Fathers, who was in ill health, Father John 
Curry. There also he died, and there he lies buried in some 
secret corner. For those Priests who live secretly on the mission, 
we are obliged also to bury secretly when they die. 

"All this while my good host, who had been taken a little 
before me, was kept imprisoned ; and for the first four months 
so straitly, that neither his wife nor any of his friends were 
allowed to have any access to him. After this, however, the 
persecutors, seeing that they could not produce any proof against 
him, because none of the Catholic servants would acknowledge 
anything and the traitor had never seen me in Priest's guise, and 
was only one witness after all, by degrees relaxed a little of 
their harshness, and permitted him to be visited and cared for, 
though they still kept him in strict custody. 

"While thus close shut up, he wrote a work by no means 
contemptible, which he divided into three parts, and called 
'Three Farewells to the world, or three deaths in different 
states of soul.' 1 In the first book he described a man of moral 
life, and virtuous in the opinion of men, but directing himself 
in all things by his own lights." . . . "In the second book he 
described a good and pious lady, who at first wished to be 
guided in everything, but subsequently, deceived by the devil, 
determined in some things to follow her own ideas." . . . "In 
the third book he described the death of a pious and devoted 
man, who, though living in the world and possessed of riches, 
yet always sought and followed the counsels of his spiritual 
Father, manifesting himself entirely for the purpose of being 
directed by him to the greater glory of God." . . . 

" It was written, not with ink, but merely with pencil, upon 
loose scraps of paper, for at that time he was kept so close 
that he could get no ink. As he finished each of the three 
parts, he sent it to me, that I might correct anything I might 
find against sound doctrine. He gave as a reason for writing 
the work, that he had himself found, as he thought, so immense 
1 Tres valedictiones mundo datae a tribus in diverso statu morientibus (MS.). 



lxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

a benefit from giving himself thoroughly to the direction of his 
spiritual guide, and had felt in consequence so undisturbed a 
peace of mind, even when the malice of the persecutors was 
daily threatening him with death, that he could not refrain from 
recommending the same course to others whom he loved. He 
said, moreover, that he wrote the book, not for the public, but 
principally for his own family, and secondly for his relations 
and friends; for that, as he could not communicate with them 
by word of mouth, he desired to show them in writing the most 
secure and meritorious way to perfection while living in the world. 
For he endeavoured to prove that perfection was even more 
necessary for those who lived in the world than for Religious. 

"Such were the sentiments of this good man. He noways 
regretted that he had during four years given himself up to mv 
direction, though he found himself in consequence exposed to 
such extreme distresses, and saw his family and fortune made 
a mark for the persecutors as a result of having harboured me. 
Nay, it was not only that he bore all these trials patiently, but 
he really thought it all joy to suffer thus for the good cause. 
His wife, also, though she loved her husband most tenderly, and 
was of a peculiarly sensitive mind, yet in this juncture bore 
everything with a singular sweetness and patience. After I was 
transferred to the Clink, where there was more chance of com- 
municating with me either by word or letter, she took a house 
in the immediate neighbourhood of my prison, in order that 
she might consult me constantly, and provide me with everything 
I needed. In this house she and her husband, who obtained 
his release after a time by large payments of money, resided 
while I remained in that prison. But after my escape from the 
Tower, they betook themselves back to their country seat, in 
order that they might have me with them there again." 

XL 

" In the meantime, I was so fully taken up in the prison with 
business, and with the visits of Catholics, that in the next room, 
which was Brother Emerson's, there were often six or eight 
persons at once, waiting their turn to see me. Nay, many of my 
most intimate and attached friends have oft-times had to wait 



Life of Father John Gerard, lxxix 

many hours at a stretch, and even then I have been obliged to 
ask them to come another time." . . . 

"While I remained in this prison, I sent over numbers of 
boys and young men to Catholic Seminaries abroad. Some of 
these are, at this present, Priests of the Society, and engaged on 
the English mission : others still remain in the Seminaries, in 
positions of authority, to assist in training labourers for the same 
field. On one occasion I had sent two boys on their way to 
St. Omers, and had given them letters of recommendation, 
written -with lemon-juice, so that the writing was not visible on 
the paper. In the paper itself I wrapped up a few collars, so that 
it might seem that its only use was to keep the collars clean. 
The boys were taken, and on being questioned, confessed that I 
had sent them. They let it out also that I had given them this 
letter, and had told them, when they came to a certain College of 
ours, on their way to St. Omers (for they had to pass by 
Ostend, which is not the usual way, and thus they came to 
be taken), to bid the Fathers steep the paper in water, 
and they would be able to read what I had written. On this 
information, then, the paper was steeped by the authorities, and 
two letters of mine were read, written on the same paper. One 
was written in Latin to our Belgian Fathers; this I had conse- 
quently signed with my own proper name. The other was 
addressed to our English Fathers at St. Omers. The letters 
having been thus discovered, I was sent for to be examined. 

" Young, however, was no longer to be my examiner. He 
had died in his sins, and that most miserably. As he lived, so he 
died : 1 he lived the devil's confessor, he died the devil's martyr ; 
for not only did he die in the devil's service, but he brought on 
his death through that very service. He was accustomed to work 
night and day to increase the distress of the Catholics, and to go 
forth frequently in inclement weather, at one or two o'clock in 
the morning, to search their houses. By these labours he fell into 
a consumption, 2 of which he died. He died, moreover, over- 

1 Qualis vita, finis ita (MS.). 

2 "Morbum regium" (MS.). Consumption is a form of scrofula, or King's 
evil, and seems to be the form most likely to be brought on by the causes here 
mentioned. In classical Latin, however, morbus regius signifies jaundice j and 
this may be the meaning here. 



lxxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

whelmed with debt, so that it might be clear that he abandoned 
all things for the devil's service. Notwithstanding all the emolu- 
ments of his office, all the plunder he took from the persecuted 
Catholics, and the large bribes they were constantly giving him to 
buy off his malicious oppression, his debts were said to amount 
to no less a sum than a hundred thousand florins [10,000/.]; and I 
have heard even a larger sum mentioned than this. Perhaps he 
expected the Queen would pay his debts ; but she did nothing of 
the sort. All she did was once to send a gentleman from Court to 
visit him, when he was confined to his bed, and near death ; and 
this mark of favour so delighted him, that he seemed ready to 
sing Nunc dimitiis. But it was a false peace, and the lifting up of 
the soul that goes before a fall ; and like another Aman, he was 
bidden not to a banquet, but to execution, and that for ever. So 
with his mouth full of the Queen's praises, and his great obliga- 
tions to Her Majesty, he died a miserable death, and anguish 
took the place of his joy. The joy of the hypocrite is but for an 
instant. 

" This man's successor in the office of persecuting and 
harassing the servants of God, was William Wade, now Governor 
of the Tower of London, but at that time Secretary to the 
Lords of the Council. For the members of the Council choose 
always to have a man in their service to whose cruelty anything 
particularly odious may be attributed, instead of its being 
supposed to be done by their warrant. This Wade then sent for 
me, and first of all showed me the blank paper that I had given 
to the boys, and asked me if I recognized it. I answered, ' No, I 
did not.' And in fact I did not recognize it, for I did not know 
the boys had been taken. Then he dipped the paper in a basin 
of water, and showed me the writing, and my name subscribed in 
full. When I saw it, I said : ' I do not acknowledge the writing. 
Any one may easily have counterfeited my handwriting and 
forged my signature ; and if such boys as you speak of have been 
taken, they may perhaps in their terror say anything that their 
examiners want them to say, to their own prejudice and that of 
their friends ; a thing I will never do. At the same time, I do not 
deny that it would be a good deed to send such boys abroad to 
be better educated; and I would gladly do it if I had the means; 



Life of Father John Gerard, lxxxi 

but closely confined as I am in prison, I cannot do anything of 
the kind, though I should like to do it. ' 

" He replied to me with a torrent of abuse for denying my 
signature and handwriting, and said : ' In truth, you have far too 
much liberty; but you shall not enjoy it long.' Then he rated 
the gaoler soundly for letting me have so much liberty. 

"I was sent for on two or three other occasions, to be 
examined; and whenever I came out of this prison, I always 
wore a Jesuit's cassock and cloak, 1 which I had had made as soon 
as I came among Catholic fellow-prisoners. The sight of this 
dress raised mocks from the boys in the streets, and put my 
persecutors in a rage. On the first occasion, they said I was a 
hypocrite. I replied : ' When I was arrested, you called me a 
courtier, and said that I had dressed myself in that fashion in 
order to disguise my real character, and to be able to deal with 
persons of rank in safety, and without being recognized. I told 
you then, that I did not like a layman's dress, and would much 
rather wear my own. Well, now I am doing so ; and you are in a 
rage again. In fact, you are not satisfied with either piping or 
mourning, but you seek excuses for inveighing against me.' 

" To this they answered : ' Why did you not go about in this 
dress before, instead of wearing a disguise, and taking a false 
name ? A thing no good man would do.' 

" I replied : ' I am aware you would like us not to do so, in 
order that we might be arrested at once, and not be able to do 
any good in the work of rescuing and gaining souls. But do you 
not know that St. Raphael personated another, and took another 
name, in order that, not being known, he might better accomplish 
God's work for which he had been sent ? ' 

1 Father Bartoli, in his Inghilterra (bk. v., ch. 13), has the following 
passage about Father Gerard, whom he knew personally at Rome: "At his 
first entrance into this prison (the Clink) he procured himself a habit of the 
Society, and continued to wear it from that time forward, even in the face of 
all London when he was being taken to his different examinations ; so that the 
people crowded to see a Jesuit in his habit, while the preachers were all the 
more exasperated at what they thought an open defiance of them." 

Father Weston in his Narrative (Father Laurenson's copy, p. 93) gives it 
as one of the signs that warned Catholics that Anthony Tyrrel was wavering 
in his faith, that without any necessity, in the Clink prison, he would wear 
secular dress. His own clerical costume in prison he mentions as a matter of 
course. " Egressus sum sequenti die, mutato habitu in saecularem " (p. 98). 



lxxxii Life of Father yohn Gerard. 

" At another time I was examined before the Dean of West- 
minster, the dignitary who has taken the place of the former 
Abbot of the great royal monastery there. Topcliffe and some 
other Commissioners were present. Their object was to confront 
me with the good widow, my host's mother, of whom I have 
before spoken, and who was confined at this time in a prison 1 
near the church at Westminster, for she was not yet condemned 
to death; that happened later. They wanted to see if she 
recognized me. So when I came into the room where they 
brought me, I found her already there. When she saw me coming 
in with the gaolers, she almost jumped for joy; but she controlled 
herself, and said to them : ■ Is that the person you spoke of? I 
do not know him ; but he looks like a Priest' 

" Upon this she made me a very low reverence, and I bowed 
in return. Then they asked me if I did not recognize her ? 

" I answered : 'I do not recognize her. At the same time, 
you know this is my usual way of answering, and I will never 
mention any places, or give the names of any persons that are 
known to me (which this lady, however, is not) ; because to do 
so, as I have told you before, would be contrary both to justice 
and charity.' 

" Then Topcliffe said : ' Tell the truth ; have you reconciled 
any persons to the Church of Rome ? ' 

" I quite understood his bloodthirsty intention, that being a 
thing expressly prohibited under penalty of high treason; but 
then I knew I was already as much compromised on account of 
my Priesthood, and therefore I answered boldly : ' Yes, in truth, 
I have received some persons, and am sorry that I have not done 
this good service to more.' 

"'Well,' said Topcliffe, 'how many would you like to have 
reconciled, if you could ? A thousand ? ' 

"'Certainly,' I said, 'a hundred thousand, and many more 
still, if I could." 



1 The Gatehouse prison, near the west end of the Abbey, " is so called of 
two gates, the one out of the College court towards the north, on the east side 
whereof was the Bishop of London's prison for clerks convict ; and the other 
gate, adjoining the first, but towards the west, is a gaol or prison for offenders 
thither committed " (Stow, p. 176). 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxxiii 

" ' That would be enough,' said Topcliffe, c to levy an army 
against the Queen.' 

" ' Those whom I reconciled,' said I, ' would not be against 
the Queen, but all for her; for we hold that obedience to 
superiors is of obligation.' 

"'No such thing,' said Topcliffe, ' you teach rebellion. See, 
I have here a Bull of the Pope, granted to Sanders 1 when he 
went to Ireland to stir up the Queen's subjects to rebellion. See, 
here it is. Read it' 

"I answered: 'There is no need to read it. It is likely 
enough that the Pontiff, if he sent him, gave him authority. But 
I have no power to meddle at all in such matters. We are 
forbidden to have anything to do with such things. I never have, 
and never will.' 

" ' Take and read it,' he said; ' I will have you read it' 

" So I took it, and seeing the name of Jesus on the top, I 
reverently kissed it. 

"'What,' said Topcliffe, 'you kiss a Bull of the Pope, do 
you?' 

" ' I kissed,' said I, ' the name of Jesus, to which all love and 
honour are due. But if it is a Bull of the Pope, as you say, I 
reverence it also on that score.' 

"And so saying, I kissed the printed paper again. Then 
Topcliffe, in a furious passion, began to abuse me in indecent 
terms." . . . "At this insolence, to own the truth, I somewhat lost 
command of myself; and though I knew that he had no grounds 
which seemed probable even to himself for what he said, but had 
uttered it from pure malice, I exclaimed : ' I call the Great and 
Blessed God to witness, that all your insinuations are false.' 

" And, as I spoke, I laid my hand on the book that was open 
before me on the table. It was a copy of the Holy Bible, but 
according to their corrupt translation into the vulgar tongue. 
Then Topcliffe held his peace ; but the Dean took up the word. 
'Are you willing,' said he, 'to be sworn on our Bible?' The 
better instructed Catholics, who can show the dishonesty of that 
translation, usually refuse this. 

1 The celebrated theologian and controversialist, Dr. Sanders, was sent as 
Papal Legate into Ireland by Gregory XIII. in 1579. 



lxxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

" I replied : ' In truth, under the necessity of rebutting this 
man's false charges at once, I did not take notice what version 
this was. However, there are some truths, as, for instance, the 
Incarnation and Passion of Christ, that have not been corrupted 
by mistranslation ; and by these I call the truth of God to 
witness. There 'are many other things falsely rendered, so as 
to involve heresies; and these I detest and anathematize.' 

" So saying, I laid my hand again upon the book, and more 
firmly than before. The old man was angry and said : ' I will 
prove that you are a heretic.' 

" I replied : ' You cannot prove it' 

" ' I will prove it,' he said, ' thus : Whoever denies Holy 
Scripture is a heretic ; you deny this to be Holy Scripture : Ergo' 

" I replied : i This is no true syllogism ; it shifts from general 
to particular, and so has four terms.' 

" The old man answered : ' I could make syllogisms before 
you were born.' 

'"Very likely,' I said; 'but the one you have just produced 
is not a true one.' 

" However, the good old man 1 would not try a new middle 
term, and made no further attempt to prove me a heretic. But 
one urged one thing, and another another, not in the way of 
argument, but after their usual plan, asking me such questions as 
they knew very well I did not like to answer ; and then, in the 
end, they sent me back to prison." 

XII. 

"On another occasion they examined me, and all the other 
Catholics that were confined in the same prison with me, in a 
public place called Guildhall, where TopclirTe and several other 
Commissioners were present. When they had put their usual 
questions, and received from me the usual answers, they came to 
the point, intending, I imagine, to sound us all as to our feelings 
towards the State, or else to entrap us in some expressions about 
the State that might be made matter of accusation. They asked 
me, then, whether I acknowledged the Queen as the true Governor 
and Queen of England. 

1 Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster from 1561 to 1601. 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxxv 

" I answered : 'I do acknowledge her as such.' 

"'What,' said TopclifTe, 'in spite of Pius V.'s excommuni- 
cation?' 

"I answered: 'I acknowledge her as our Queen, notwith- 
standing I know there is such an excommunication.' 

" The fact was, I knew that the operation of that excommuni- 
cation had been suspended for all in England by a declaration of 
the Pontiff, till such time as its execution became possible. 

" TopclifTe proceeded : ' What would you do in case the Pope 
sent an army into England, asserting that the object was solely 
to bring back the kingdom to the Catholic religion, and protesting 
that there was no other way left of introducing the Catholic faith, 
and, moreover, commanding all in virtue of his Apostolical 
authority to aid his cause? Whose side would you then take, 
the Pope's or the Queen's?' 

" I saw the malicious man's cunning, and that his aim was, 
that whichever way I answered I might injure myself, either in 
soul or body ; and so I worded my reply thus : ' I am a true 
Catholic, and a true subject of the Queen. If, then, this were to 
happen, which is unlikely, and which I think will never be the 
case, I would act as became a true Catholic and a true subject.' 

" 'Nay, nay,' said he; 'answer positively and to the point' 

'"I have declared my mind,' said I, 'and no other answer 
will I make.' 

"On this he flew into a most violent rage, and vomited out a 
torrent of curses ; and ended by saying : ' You think you will 
creep to kiss the Cross this year ; but before the time comes, I 
will take good care you do no such thing.' 

"He meant to intimate, in the abundance of his charity, that 
he would take care I should go to Heaven by the rope before 
that time. But he had not been admitted into the secrets of 
God's sanctuary, and did not know my great unworthiness. 
Though God had permitted him to execute his malice on others, 
whom the Divine Wisdom knew to be worthy and well prepared, 
as on Father Southwell and others, whom he pursued to the 
death, yet no such great mercy of God came to me from his 
anger. Others indeed, for whom a kingdom was prepared by 
the Father, were advanced to Heaven by our Lord Jesus 



lxxxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

through his means; but this heavenly gift was too great for 
an angry man to be allowed to bestow on me. However, he 
was really in some sort a prophet in uttering these words, though 
he meant them differently from the sense in which they were 
fulfilled. 

"What I have mentioned happened about Christmas. In the 
following Lent, he himself was thrown into prison for disrespect to 
the members of the Queen's Council, on an occasion, if I mistake 
not, when he had pleaded too boldly in behalf of his only son, 
who had killed a man with his sword in the great hall of the 
Court of Queen's Bench. This took place about Passion Sunday. 
We, then, who were in prison for the Faith, seeing our enemy, 
Aman, about to be hanged on his own gibbet, began to lift up our 
heads, and to use what liberty we had a little more freely, and we 
admitted a greater number to the Sacraments, and to assist at the 
services and holy rites of the Church. Thus it was that on Good 
Friday a large number of us were together in the room over 
mine, in fact, all the Catholics in the prison, and a number of 
others from without. I had gone through all the service, and said 
all the prayers appointed for the day, up to the point where the 
Priest has to lay aside his shoes. I had put them off, and had 
knelt down, and was about to creep towards the Cross and make 
the triple adoration of it ; when, lo S just as I had moved two 
paces, the head gaoler came and knocked at the door of my room 
underneath, and as I did not answer from within, he began to 
batter violently at the door and make a great noise. As soon as 
I heard it, I knew that the chief gaoler was there, because no 
other would have ventured to behave in that way to me : so I 
sent some one to say that I would come directly, and then, 
instead of going on with the adoration of the material Cross, 
I hastened to the spiritual cross that God presented to me, and 
taking off the sacred vestments that I was wearing, I went down 
with speed, for fear the gaoler might come up after me, and find a 
number of others, who would thus have been brought into trouble. 
When he saw me, he said in a loud tone of voice : ' How comes 
it that I find you out of your room, when you ought to be kept 
strictly confined to it ?' 

"As I knew the nature of the man, I pretended, in reply, to 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxxvii 

be angry, that one who professed to be a friend should have come 
at such a time as that, when, if ever, we were bound to be busy at 
our prayers. 

" ' What,' said he, ' you were at Mass, were you ? I will go 
and see.' 

"'No such thing,' I said; 'you seem to know very little of 
our ways. There is not a single Mass said to-day throughout the 
whole Church. Go up if you like; but understand that, if you 
do, neither I nor any one of the Catholics will ever pay anything 
for our rooms. You may put us all, if you like, in the common 
prison of the poor who do not pay. But you will be no gainer 
by that ; whereas, if you act in a friendly way with us, and do not 
come upon us unawares in this manner, you will not find us 
ungrateful, as you have not found us hitherto.' 

"He softened down a little at this; and then I said: 'What 
have you come for now, I pray.' 

" ' Surely,' said he, ' to greet you from Master TopclirTe.' 

" ' From him ? ' I said ; ' and how is it that he and I are such 
great friends ? Is he not in such a prison ? He cannot do 
anything against me just now, I fancy.' 

"'No,' said the gaoler, 'he cannot. But he really sends to 
greet you. When I visited him to-day, he asked me how you 
were. I replied that you were very well. "But he does not 
bear his imprisonment," said Master TopclirTe, "as patiently as I 
do mine. I would have you greet him, then, in my name, and 
tell him what I have said." So I have come now for the purpose 
of repeating his message to you.' 

'"Very well,' I replied. 'Now tell him from me, that by the 
grace of God I willingly bear my imprisonment for the cause of 
the Faith, and I could wish his cause were the same.' 

" Thereupon the gaoler went away, rating his servant, however, 
for not having kept me more closely confined. And thus TopclirTe 
really accomplished what he had promised, having checked me in 
the very act of adoration, although without thinking of what he 
said, and with another intent at the time. Thus was Saul among 
the prophets. However, he did not prevent my going up again 
and completing what I had begun. 

" The man who had charge of my room would not do anything 



lxxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

in our rooms without my leave. And after my first gaoler, who 
soon died, the others who succeeded were well disposed to oblige 
me. One of them, who had the gaolership by inheritance, I made 
a Catholic. He immediately gave up his post and sold the right 
of succession, and became the attendant of a Catholic gentleman, 
a friend of mine, and afterwards accompanied his son to Italy, 
and got a vocation to the Religious state. At present he is a 
prisoner in the very prison where he had been my gaoler. The 
next who had the charge of me after him, being a married man 
with children, was kept by fear of poverty from becoming a 
Catholic ; but yet he was afterwards so attached to myself and all 
our friends, that he received us into his own house, and sometimes 
concealed there such Catholics as were more sorely pressed than 
others by the persecution. And when I was to be got out of the 
Tower of London, with serious risk to all who aided the enterprise, 
he himself in person was one of the three who exposed themselves 
to such great danger. And although he was nearly drowned the first 
night of the attempt, he rowed the boat the next night as before, 
as I shall hereafter relate. For not long after what I just now 
mentioned, I was removed from that prison to the Tower of 
London ; the occasion of which was the following." 

XIII. 

" There was in the prison with me a certain Priest, 1 to whom I 
had done many good services. When he first came to England, 
I had lodged him in an excellent house with some of my best 
friends ; I had made Catholics of his mother and only brother ; I 
had secured him a number of friends when he was thrown into 
prison, and had made him considerable presents. I had always 
shown him affection, although, perceiving that he was not firm 
and steady in spirit, but rather hankered too much after freedom, 
I did not deal confidently with him, as with others in the prison, 
especially Brother Emerson and John Lilly. Nevertheless, this 
good man, from some motive or other, procured my removal; 

1 William Atkinson, the apostate Priest, in a letter to Blackwell the Arch- 
priest, dated Apr. 9, 1602, said that he was in prison with Father Gerard 
(Bartoli, Inghilterra, p. 416). This man dared to offer to poison the Earl of 
Tyrone in a host (P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 251, n. 49). 



Life of Father John Gerard. lxxxix 

whether in the desire and expectation that, if I were gone, all 
whom he saw come to me would thenceforth come to him, or in 
order to curry favour with our enemies, and obtain liberty or some 
such boon for himself, is not certain. Be that as it may, he 
reported to our enemies that he was standing by when I handed 
a packet of letters dated from Rome and Brussels to a servant of 
Father Garnett's, of the name of Little John, about whom I have 
before spoken. This latter, after having been arrested in my 
company, as I have related, and subjected to various examinations, 
but without disclosing anything, had been released for a sum of 
money which some Catholic gentlemen had paid. For his services 
were indispensable to them and many others, as he was a first-rate 
hand at contriving Priests' hiding-places. The Priest then reported 
that I had given this man letters, and that I was in the habit 
of receiving letters from beyond the sea addressed both to my 
Superior and to myself. 

" Acting on this information, the persecutors sent a Justice of 
the Peace to me one day, with two Queen's messengers, or 
pursuivants as they call them. These came up to my room on 
a sudden with the head gaoler ; but by God's providence they 
found no one with me at the time except two boys, whom I was 
instructing with intention to send them abroad ; one of whom, if 
I remember right, escaped, the other they imprisoned for a time. 
But they found nothing else in my room that I was afraid of 
being seen; for I was accustomed to keep all my manuscripts 
and other articles of importance in some holes made to hide 
things. All these holes were known to Brother Emerson; and 
so after my removal he took out everything, and among the rest a 
reliquary that I have with me now, and a store of money that 
I had in hand for the expenses of my house in town, of which I 
have before spoken, to the amount of thirteen hundred florins 
[130/.]. This money he sent to my Superior, who took charge of 
the house from that time till I was got out of prison. 

" When these officials came in they began to question me ; 
and when the examination was over, which it soon was, as they 
could get nothing from me of what they wanted to know, they 
began to search the room all over, to find letters or something 
else, that might serve their turn and injure me. While the Justice 



xc Life of Father John Gerard. 

of the Peace was rummaging my books, one of the pursuivants 
searched my person, and opening my doublet, he discovered my 
hairshirt. At first he did not know what it was, and said : 
' What is this ? ' 

" ' A shirt,' I replied. 

" ' Ho, ho!' said he, c it is a hairshirt.' And he caught 
hold of it, and wanted to drag it off my body by force. 

" This insolence of the varlet, to confess my imperfection 
honestly, excited me more than anything that I have ever had to 
endure from my enemies, and I was within a little of thrusting 
him violently back ; but I checked myself by God's grace, and 
claimed the Justice's protection, who immediately made him give 
over. So they sought, but found nothing in my room that they 
sought for except myself; and me they took at once, and went 
straight to the Tower of London with me, and there handed me 
to the Governor, whose title is King's Lieutenant. He was a 
Knight of the name of Barkley. He conducted me at once to a 
large high tower of three stories, with a separate lock-up place in 
each, one of a number of different towers contained within the 
whole inclosure. He left me for the night in the lowest part, 
and committed the custody of my person to a servant in whom 
he placed great confidence. The servant brought a little straw at 
once, and throwing it down on the ground, went away, fastening 
the door of my prison, and securing the upper door both with a 
great bolt and with iron bars. I recommended myself therefore 
to God, Who is wont to go down with His people into the pit, 
and Who never abandoned me in my bondage, as well as to the 
most Blessed Virgin, the Mother of Mercy, and to my Patron 
Saints and Guardian Angel ; and after prayer I lay down with a 
calm mind on the straw, and slept very well that night. 

" The next day I examined the place, for there was some 
light, though dim; and I found the name of Father Henry 
Walpole, of blessed memory, 1 cut with a knife on the wall, and 
not far from there I found his oratory, which was a space where 
there had been a narrow window, now blocked up with stones. 
There he had written on either side with chalk the names of the 

1 Henry Walpole, S.J., was executed at York, April 7, 1595, for his 
Priesthood. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xci 

different choirs of Angels, and on the top, above the Cherubim 
and Seraphim, the name of Mary Mother of God, and over that 
the name of Jesus, and over that again, in Latin, Greek, and 
Hebrew, the name of GOD. It was truly a great consolation to 
me to find myself in this place, hallowed by the presence of so 
great and so devoted a martyr, the place, too, in which he was 
frequently tortured, to the number, as I have heard, of fourteen 
times. Probably they were unwilling to torture him in public and 
in the ordinary place, because they did it oftener than they would 
have it known. And I can well believe that he was racked that 
number of times, for he lost through it the proper use of his 
fingers. This I can vouch for from the following circumstance. 
He was carried back to York, to be executed in the place where 
he was taken on his first landing in England, and while in prison 
there he had a discussion with some ministers which he wrote out 
with his own hand. 1 A part of this writing was given to me, 
together with some meditations on the Passion of Christ, which 
he had written in prison before his own passion. These writings, 
however, I could scarcely read at all, not because they were 
written hastily, but because the hand of the writer could not 
form the letters. It seemed more like the first attempts of a 
child, than the handwriting of a scholar and a gentleman, such as 
he was. Yet he used to be at Court before the death of Father 
Campion, in whose honour he also wrote some beautiful verses 
in the English tongue, declaring that he and many others had 
received the warmth of life from that blessed martyr's blood, 2 and 
had been animated by it to follow the more perfect counsels of 
Christ. 

" When, therefore, I found myself in Father Walpole's cell I 
rejoiced exceedingly thereat; but I was not worthy to be the 
successor of such a man in his place of suffering. For on the 

1 It was Father Walpole's custom to make notes of his conferences with 
ministers. In the Public Record Office {Domestic, Eliz., vol. 248., n. 51) 
there is an interesting record in his own hand of his discussions while he was 
in the custody of Outlaw, the pursuivant. 

2 Edmund Campion, S.J., suffered at Tyburn, Dec. I, 1581, for a pre- 
tended conspiracy at Rome and Rhemes. The Act of 27 Elizabeth (15S5), 
which made the mere presence of a Priest in England high treason, had not 
yet been passed. 



xcii Life of Father John Gerard. 

day following my gaoler, either because he thought to do me a 
favour, or in consequence of his master's orders, brought me into 
the upper room, which was sufficiently large and commodious for 
a prisoner. I told him that I preferred to stay in the lower 
dungeon, and mentioned the reason, but as he showed himself 
opposed to this, I asked him to allow me sometimes to go there 
and pray. This he promised me, and in fact frequently permitted. 
Then he inquired of me if he could go for me anywhere to any 
friends of mine who would be willing to send me a bed. For it 
is the custom in this prison that a bed should not be provided, 
but that a prisoner should provide himself a bed and other 
furniture, which afterwards goes to the Lieutenant of the Tower, 
even though the prisoner should be liberated. I replied that I 
had no friends to whom I could send, except such as I left in the 
prison from which I had been brought ; 1 these, perhaps, if he 
would call there, would give me a plain bed by way of alms. The 
gaoler therefore went to the Catholics detained in the Clink, who 
immediately sent me a bed such as they knew I wished for ; that 
is, a mattrass stuffed with wool and feathers after the Italian 
fashion. They sent also a cloak and some linen for me; and 
asked him always to come there for anything I wanted, and 
promised to give money or anything else, provided he brought 
a note signed by me of things I needed. They also gave him 
money at that time for himself, and besought him to treat me 
kindly." 

XIV. 

"On the third day, immediately after dinner, came my gaoler 
to me, and with sorrowful mien told me the Lords Commissioners 
had come, and with them the Queen's Attorney General, and that 
I must go down to them. 

(U Iam ready,' I replied. ' I only ask you to allow me to say 
a Pater and Ave in the lower dungeon.' 

" This he allowed ; and then we went together to the house of 
the Lieutenant, which was within the Tower walls. There I 

1 This was said, of course, because it was dangerous to mention the names 
of any friends who were still at liberty. It could do no harm to mention those 
already in prison. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xciii 

found five men, none of whom had before examined me except 
Wade, who was there for the purpose of accusing me on all 
points. 

" The Queen's Attorney General then took a sheet of paper, 
and began to write a solemn form of juridical examination." 

The examination of Father Gerard on this occasion is pre- 
served in the Public Record Office. 1 The Commissioners were 
Sir Richard Barkley, Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Edward Coke, 
then Attorney General, Thomas Fleming, a Privy Councillor, 
Sir Francis Bacon, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and William 
Wade, or Waad, afterwards Lieutenant of the Tower. 

"The examination of John Gerard, Priest, taken this 14th 
day of April, 1597. 

" Being demanded whether he received any letters from 
the parts beyond the seas or no, confesseth that within these 
four or five days he received 2 from Antwerp (as he supposeth) 
letters inclosed and sealed up. But how many letters were 
inclosed therein he knoweth not, and saith that the said letters 
were directed to him by the name of Standish; and being 
demanded from whom those letters were sent, 3 saith that he 
knoweth not from whom the same were sent, and denieth that 
he read them or that he knoweth the contents of the same, and 
at the first he said that he burnt them, but afterwards retracted 
that and confesseth that he sent them over to whom the same 
appertained, but 4 refuseth to declare to whom the same were 
delivered over, and refuseth also to declare who brought the 
same to him, or by whom he conveyed them over. He con- 
fesseth that he received within this year past other letters from 
the parts beyond the seas, and two or three of them he confesseth 
he did read, and saith that those letters contained matter con- 
cerning maintenance of scholars beyond sea, but refuseth to 
declare who sent those letters or by whom the same were 
brought, and saith that some of those letters were sent from 
St. Omers; and two or three other letters which he received 
from the parts beyond the seas he conveyed over to some other 

1 Domestic, Eliz., vol. 262, n. 123. 3 Denieth that. Erased. 

2 As he supposed. Erased. 4 Denieth that. Erased. 



xciv Life of Father John Gerard. 

within this realm, but denieth that he knew the contents of 
those letters, and refuseth to tell who sent or brought the same 
or to whom the same were conveyed, but saith that the same 
were sent over to him to whom the said last letters which he 
received were conveyed unto. And being demanded whether 
he sent not those letters to Garnett, his Superior, saith that he 
will name no name; but saith that those letters came to him 
because he had more opportunity to receive them and to convey 
them over. And confesseth that the party to whom he sent 
those letters is a Priest, and being demanded how it is possible 
that he should know to whom the said last letters appertained, 
considering that he saith that he neither knoweth from whom 
the same were sent, nor knoweth the contents of the same, 
especially the said letters being directed to himself by the name 
of Standish, saith that he 1 thinketh that some within this realm 
have greater 2 care and authority to provide for such scholars 
as be beyond sea than he, and saith that he sent those last 
letters as he had done other to that person, taking the same 
to contain no other matter but only concerning 3 maintenance 
of scholars and such as be sent from hence for the like matters. 
And being demanded whether he opened not the outermost 
sealed of those last letters, confesseth that he did; and being 
also demanded to whom the letters within inclosed were directed, 
saith that he remembereth not 4 the name, but saith that he 
thinketh it was to the said former person, and saith that there 
was nothing written within the outermost paper, and thinketh 
that there were two letters within that which he conveyed over. 
And saith that the letters within were not directed as the outer- 
most was, but saith that he remembereth not 5 by what name the 
same were directed. 

U I refuse not for any disloyal mind 9 I protest as I look to be 
saved, but for that 1 take these things not to have concerned any 
matter of State, with which I would not have dealt, nor any other 
but matters of devotion as before. 

1 Thinketh that some substituted for knoweth who. 

2 Care substituted for charge. 

3 Maintenance of, &c., interlined. 

4 The name . . . person interlined in place of to whom. 

5 By what name substituted for to whom. 



Life of Father John Gerard. xcv 

" And being demanded whether this subscription is his usual 
manner of writing, saith that he useth the same in his subscriptions 
to his examinations, and saith that the cause thereof is that he 
would bring no man to trouble and that he will not acknowledge 
his own hand, and saith that he never wrote any letter to any 
man in this hand, saving once to Mr. Topcliffe. And being 
demanded what was the cause that moved him to have escaped 
out of prison of late, saith that the cause was that he might 
have more opportunity to have won souls. And being demanded 
who procured the counterfeit keys for him, by means whereof 
he should have escaped, refuseth to tell who it was, for that, as 
he saith, he will not discover anything against any other that 

may bring them to trouble. 

"John Gerard. 1 
" Examined by us, 
"Ry. Barkeley. 
"Edw. Coke. 
"Tho. Fflemynge. 
"Fr. Bacon. 
"W. Waad." 2 

We now return to the impression that remained on Father 
Gerard's memory of this examination, when he wrote his life 

1 The spelling in those days was simply reckless. Father Gerard signs this 
Examination "Jhon Gerrard; " it is endorsed ''Jo. Jerrard; " and Sir Edward 
Coke's note on it is "Jarrard." It becomes difficult to know how to print 
proper names; e.g., Campion or Campian, Persons or Parsons, Garnet or 
Garnett, Ouldcorne or Oldcorn. In the Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot the 
form of name is adopted that is most prevalent in the autograph from which it 
is printed. 

2 On the back of a playing card (the seven of spades), which is attached to 
the original document, is written in Sir Edward Coke's handwriting : 

" Polewhele I 

"Walpole I 

"PatCullen I 

" Annias 31 

"Willms I 

" Squier 

"Jarrard I." 

Polewhele, Patrick Cullen or O'Collun, Williams, and Squire were all 
executed for high treason, the latter on the accusation of having, at Father 
Walpole's instigation, poisoned the pommel of Elizabeth's saddle. Annias 
apostatized after two years' imprisonment. 



xcvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

some twelve years afterwards. "They did not ask anything 
at that time about private Catholics, but only about matters of 
State, to which I answered as before in general terms ; namely, 
that all such things were strictly forbidden to us of the Society, 
that I had consequently never mixed myself up with political 
matters, sufficient proof whereof, I said, was to be found in the 
fact that, though they had had me in custody for three years 
and had constantly examined me, they had never been able to 
produce a single line of my writing, nor a single trustworthy 
witness, to show that I had ever injured the State in a single 
point. 

"They then inquired what letters I had lately received from 
our Fathers abroad. Here it was I first divined the reason of 
my being transferred to the Tower. I answered, however, that 
if I had ever received any letters from abroad, they never had 
any connection with matters of State, but related solely to the 
money matters of certain Catholics who were living beyond seas. 

" ' Did not you,' said Wade, ' receive lately a packet of 
letters ; and did you not deliver them to such a one for Henry 
Garnett?' 

"'If I have received any such,' I answered, 'and delivered 
them as you say, I only did my duty. But I never received nor 
delivered any but what related to the private money matters of 
certain Religious or students who are pursuing their studies 
beyond seas, as I have before said.' 

"'Well,' said they, 'where is he to be found to whom you 
delivered the letters, and how is he called ? ' 

" ' I do not know,' I answered ; ' and if I did know, I neither 
could nor would tell you.' And then I alleged the usual reasons. 

" ' You tell us,' said the Attorney General, ' that you do not 
wish to offend against the State. Tell us, then, where this 
Garnett is ; for he is an enemy of the State, and you are bound 
to give information of such people.' 

"'He is no enemy of the State,' I replied; 'but, on the 
contrary, I am sure that he would be ready to lay down his 
life for the Queen and the State. However, I do not know 
where he is, and if I did know I would not tell you.' 

" ' But you shall tell us,' said they, ' before we leave this place.' 



Life of Father yohn Gerard, xcvii 

" ' Please God,' said I, 'that shall never be.' 

" They then produced the warrant which they had for putting 
me to the torture, and gave it me to read ; for it is not allowed 
in this prison to put any one to the torture without express 
warrant. I saw the document was duly signed, so I said : * By 
the help of God, I will never do what is against God, against 
justice, and against the Catholic faith. You have me in your 
power; do what God permits you, for you certainly cannot go 
beyond.' 

"Then they began to entreat me not to force them to do 
what they were loath to do ; and told me they were bound not 
to desist from putting me to the torture day after day, as long 
as my life lasted, until I gave the information they sought from 
me. 

" ' I trust in God's goodness,' I answered, ' that He will never 
allow me to do so base an act as to bring innocent persons to 
harm. Nor, indeed, do I fear what you can do to me, since all 
of us are in God's hands.' 

"Such was the purport of my replies, as far as I can remember. 

"Then we proceeded to the place appointed for the torture. 
We went in a sort of solemn procession ; the attendants preceding 
us with lighted candles, because the place was underground and 
very dark, especially about the entrance. It was a place of 
immense extent, and in it were ranged divers sorts of racks, and 
other instruments of torture. Some of these they displayed before 
me, and told me I should have to taste them every one. Then 
again they asked me if I was willing to satisfy them on the points 
on which they had questioned me. 'It is out of my power to 
satisfy you,' I answered ; and throwing myself on my knees, I 
said a prayer or two. 

"Then they led me to a great upright beam, or pillar of wood, 
which was one of the supports of this vast crypt. At the summit 
of this column were fixed certain iron staples for supporting 
weights. Here they placed on my wrists manacles of iron, and 
ordered me to mount upon two or three wicker steps; 1 then 
raising my arms, they inserted an iron bar through the rings of 

1 S'cirpicula qusedam duo vel tria ex juncis facta (MS.)- It is not easy to 
underst and exactly what these were. 



xcviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

the manacles, and then through the staples in the pillar, putting a 
pin through the bar so that it could not slip. My arms being thus 
fixed above my head, they withdrew those wicker steps I spoke 
of, one by one, from beneath my feet, so that I hung by my 
hands and arms. The tips of my toes, however, still touched the 
ground; 1 so they dug away the ground beneath, as they could 
not raise me higher, for they had suspended me from the 
topmost staples in the pillar. 

"Thus hanging by my wrists, I began to pray, while those 
gentlemen standing round asked me again if I was willing to 
confess. I replied, 'I neither can nor will.' But so terrible a 
pain began to oppress me, that I was scarce able to speak the 
words. The worst pain was in my breast and belly, my arms and 
hands. It seemed to me that all the blood in my body rushed 
up my arms into my hands ; and I was under the impression at 
the time that the blood actually burst forth from my fingers and 
at the back of my hands. This was, however, a mistake; the 
sensation was caused by the swelling of the flesh over the iron 
that bound it. 

"I felt now such intense pain (and the effect was probably 
heightened by an interior temptation), that it seemed to me 
impossible to continue enduring it. It did not, however, go so 
far as to make me feel any inclination or real disposition to give 
the information they wanted. For as the eyes of our merciful 
Lord had seen my imperfection, He did 'not suffer me to be 
tempted above what I was able, but with the temptation made 
also a way of escape.' Seeing me therefore in this agony of pain 
and this interior distress, His infinite mercy sent me this thought : 
1 The very furthest and utmost they can do is to take away thy 
life ; and often hast thou desired to give thy life for God : thou 
art in God's hands, Who knoweth well what thou sufferest, and 
is all-powerful to sustain thee.' With this thought our good God 
gave me also out of His immense bounty the grace to resign 
myself, and offer myself utterly to His good pleasure, together 

1 Father Gerard's great stature could not be more clearly indicated. This 
would of course involve a greater weight of body, and consequently greater 
severity in this mode of torture. "Erat enim," says Father More, in his 
History, "pleno et procero corpore." 



Life of Father John Gerard. xcix 

with some hope and desire of dying for His sake. From that 
moment I felt no more trouble in my soul, and even the bodily 
pain seemed to be more bearable than before, although I doubt 
not that it really increased, from the continued strain that was 
exercised on every part of my body. 

" Hereupon those gentlemen, seeing that I gave them no 
further answer, departed to the Lieutenant's house; and there they 
waited, sending now and then to know how things were going on 
in the crypt. There were left with me three or four strong men, 
to superintend my torture. My gaoler also remained, I fully 
believe out of kindness to me, and kept wiping away with a 
handkerchief the sweat that ran down from my face the whole 
time, as, indeed, it did from my whole body. So far, indeed, he 
did me a service; but by his words, he rather added to my 
distress, for he never stopped beseeching and entreating me to 
have pity on myself, and tell these gentlemen what they wanted 
to know ; and so many human reasons did he allege, that I verily 
believe he was either instigated directly by the devil under 
pretence of affection for me, or had been left there purposely by 
the persecutors to influence me by his show of sympathy. In any 
case, these shafts of the enemy seemed to be spent before they 
reached me, for though annoying, they did me no real hurt, nor 
did they seem to touch my soul, or move it in the least. I said, 
therefore, to him, ' I pray, you to say no more on that point, for I 
am not minded to lose my soul for the sake of my body, and you 
pain me by what you say.' Yet I could not prevail with him to 
be silent. The others also who stood by said : ' He will be a 
cripple all his life, if he lives through it ; but he will have to 
be tortured daily till he confesses.' But I kept praying in a 
low voice, and continually uttered the holy names of Jesus 
and Mary. 

" I had hung in this way till after one of the clock, as I think, 
when I fainted. How long I was in the faint I know not; 
perhaps not long; for the men who stood by lifted me up, or 
replaced those wicker steps under my feet, until I came to 
myself; and immediately they heard me praying, they let me 
down again. This they did over and over again when the faint 
came on, eight or nine times before five of the clock. Somewhat 



c Life of Father John Gerard. 

before five came Wade again, and drawing near said, ' Will you 
yet obey the commands of the Queen and the Council ? ' 

"'No,' said I, 'what you ask is unlawful, therefore I will 
never do it' 

" 'At least then,' said Wade, 'say that you would like to speak 
to Secretary Cecil.' 

" ' I have nothing to say to him,' I replied, ' more than I have 
said already; and if I were to ask to speak to him, scandal would 
be caused, for people would imagine that I was yielding at 
length, and wished to give information.' 

" Upon this Wade suddenly turned his back in a rage, and 
departed, saying in a loud and angry tone, ' Hang there, then, till 
you rot ! ' 

"So he went away, and I think all the Commissioners then 
left the Tower; for at five of the clock the great bell of the 
Tower sounds, as a signal for all to leave who do not wish to be 
locked in all night. Soon after this they took me down from my 
cross, and though neither foot nor leg was injured, yet I could 
hardly stand.'' 

XV. 

" I was helped back to my cell by the gaoler, and meeting on the 
way some of the prisoners who had the range of the Tower, I 
addressed the gaoler in their hearing, saying I wondered how 
those gentlemen could insist so on my telling them where Father 
Garnett was, since every one must acknowledge it to be a sin to 
betray an innocent man, a thing I would never do, though I 
should die for it. This I said out loud, on purpose that the 
authorities might not have it in their power to publish a report 
about me that I had made a confession, as they often did in such 
cases. I had also another reason, which was that word might 
reach Father Garnett, through these persons spreading abroad 
what they heard me say, that it was about him I was chiefly 
examined, in order that he might look to himself. I noticed that 
my gaoler was very unwilling that I should speak thus before the 
others, but I did not stint for that. My gaoler appeared sincerely 
to compassionate my state, and when he reached my cell he laid 
me a fire, and brought me some food, as supper-time had nearly 



Life of Father John Gerard. ci 

come. I scarcely tasted anything, but laid myself on my bed, 
and remained quiet there till the next morning. 

" Early next morning, however, soon after the Tower gates 
were opened, my gaoler came up to the cell and told me that 
Master Wade had arrived, and that I must go down to him. 
I went down, therefore, that time in a sort of cloak with wide 
sleeves, for my hands were so swollen that they would not have 
passed through ordinary sleeves. When I had come to the 
Lieutenant's house, Wade addressed me thus : 'I am sent to 
you on the part of the Queen and of Master Secretary Cecil, the 
first of whom assures you on the word of a Sovereign, the other 
on his word of honour, that they know for certain that Garnett is 
in the habit of meddling in political matters, and that he is an 
enemy of the State. Consequently, unless you mean to con- 
tradict them flatly, you ought to submit your judgment, and 
produce him.' 

" ' They cannot possibly know this,' I replied, ' by their own 
experience and of certain knowledge, since they have no personal 
knowledge of the man. Now, I have lived with him and know 
him well, and I know him to be no such character as you say.' 

" ' Well then,' returned he, ' you will not acknowledge it, nor 
tell us what we ask ? ' 

" ' No, certainly not,' said I ; 'I neither can nor will.' 

" ' It would be better for you if you did,' he replied. And 
thereupon he summoned from the next room a gentleman who 
had been there waiting, a tall and commanding figure, whom he 
called the Superintendent of Torture. I knew there was such an 
officer, but this man was not really in that charge, as I heard 
afterwards, but was Master of the Artillery in the Tower. How- 
ever, Wade called him by that name to strike the greater terror 
into me, and said to him, ' In the name of the Queen, and of 
the Lords of her Council, I deliver this man into your hands. 
You are to rack him twice to-day, and twice daily until such time 
as he chooses to confess.' The officer then took charge of me, 
and Wade departed. 

" Thereupon we descended with the same solemnity as before 
into the place appointed for torture, and again they put the 
manacles on the same part of my arms as before ; indeed, they 



cii Life of Father John Gerard. 

could not be put on in any other part, for the flesh had so risen 
on both sides that there were two hills of flesh with a valley 
between, and the manacles would not meet anywhere but in the 
valley. Here then were they put on, not without causing me 
much pain. Our good Lord, however, helped me, and I cheerfully 
offered Him my hands and my heart. So I was hung up again 
as I before described ; and in my hands I felt a great deal more 
pain than on the previous day, but not so much in my breast and 
belly, perhaps because this day I had eaten nothing. 

" While thus hanging I prayed, sometimes silently, sometimes 
aloud, recommending myself to our Lord Jesus and His Blessed 
Mother. I hung much longer this time without fainting, but at 
length I fainted so thoroughly that they could not bring me to, 
and they thought that I either was dead or soon would be. So 
they called the Lieutenant, but how long he was there I know 
not, nor how long I remained in the faint. When I came round, 
however, I found myself no longer hanging by my hands, but 
supported sitting on a bench, with many people round me, 
who had opened my teeth with some iron instrument, and 
were pouring warm water down my throat. Now when the 
Lieutenant saw I could speak, he said : ' Do you not see how 
much better it is for you to yield to the wishes of the Queen than 
to lose your life this way ? ' 

" By God's help I answered him with more spirit than I had 
ever before felt, ' No, certainly I do not see it. ' I would rather 
die a thousand times than do what they require of me.' 

" ' You will not, then,' he repeated. 

" ' No, indeed I will not,' I answered, 'while a breath remains 
in my body/ 

" ' Well then,' said he, and he seemed to say it sorrowfully, as 
if reluctant to carry out his orders, ' we must hang you up again 
now, and after dinner too.' 

" ' Let us go, then, in the name of God,' I said ; ' I have but 
one life, and if I had more I would offer them all for this cause.' 
And with this I attempted to rise in order to go to the pillar, but 
they were obliged to support me, as I was very weak in body 
from the torture. And if there was any strength in my soul it was 
the gift of God, and given, I am convinced, because I was a 



Life of Father John Gerard. ciii 

member of the Society, though a most unworthy one. I was 
suspended, therefore, a third time, and hung there in very great 
pain of body, but not without great consolation of soul, which 
seemed to me to arise from the prospect of dying. Whether it 
was from a true love of suffering for Christ, or from a sort of 
selfish desire to be with Christ, God knows best ; but I certainly 
thought that I should die, and felt great joy in committing myself 
to the will and good pleasure of my God, and contemning entirely 
the will of men. Oh, that God would grant me always to have 
that same spirit (though I doubt not that it wanted much of true 
perfection in His eyes), for a longer life remains to me than I 
then thought, and He granted me time to prepare myself better 
for His holy presence. 

"After awhile the Lieutenant, seeing that he made no way 
with me by continuing the torture, or because the dinner-hour 
was near at hand, or perhaps through a natural feeling of com- 
passion, ordered me to be taken down. I think I hung not 
quite an hour this third time. I am rather inclined to think that 
the Lieutenant released me from compassion ; for, some time 
after my escape, a gentleman of quality told me he had it from 
Sir Richard Barkley himself (who was this very Lieutenant of 
whom I speak), that he had of his own accord resigned the office 
he held, because he w r ould no longer be an instrument in torturing 
innocent men so cruelly. And, in fact, he gave up the post after 
holding it but three or four months, and another Knight was 
appointed in his stead, in whose time it was that I made my 
escape. 

"So I was brought back to my room by my gaoler, who 
seemed to have his eyes full of tears, and he assured me that his 
wife had been weeping and praying for me the whole time, 
though I had never seen the good woman in all my life. Then 
he brought me some food, of which I could eat but little, and 
that little he was obliged to cut for me and put into my mouth. 
I could not hold a knife in my hands for many days after, much 
less now when I was not even able to move my fingers, nor help 
myself in anything, so that he was obliged to do everything for 
me. However, by order of the authorities he took away my 
knife, scissors, and razors, lest I should kill myself, I believe; 



civ Life of Father John Gerard. 

for they always do this in the Tower as long as the prisoner is 
under warrant for torture. I expected, therefore, daily to be sent 
for again to the torture-chamber, according to order ; but our 
merciful God, while to other stronger champions, such as Father 
Walpole and Father Southwell, He gave a sharp struggle that 
they might overcome, gave His weak soldier but a short trial that 
he might not be overcome. They indeed, being perfected in a 
short time, fulfilled a long space ; but I, unworthy of so great a 
good, was left to run out my days, and so supply for my defects 
by washing my soul with my tears, since I deserved not to wash 
it with my blood. God so ordained it, and may that be done 
which is good in His eyes." 

Father Garnett, in his letters, mentions Father Gerard's torture 
for the first time when writing to Father Persons at Rome, April 
23, 1597 -, 1 "John Gerard hath been sore tortured in the Tower : 
it is thought it was for some letters directed to him out of Spain." 
Between this date and the next, some details had reached Father 
Garnett, for on the 7th of May, 1597, he wrote to the General 
(we translate from the Italian) : 2 "Of John Gerard I have already 
written to you where he is. He hath been twice hanged up by 
the hands, with great cruelty of others, and not less suffering of 
his own. The inquisitors here say that he is very obstinate, and 
that he has a great alliance with God or the devil, as they cannot 
draw the least word out of his mouth, except that in torment he 
cries l Jesus.' They took him lately to the rack, and the torturers 
and examiners were there ready, but he suddenly, when he entered 
the place, knelt down, and with a loud voice prayed to our Lord 
that, as He had given grace and strength to some of His Saints 
to bear with Christian patience being torn to pieces by horses 
for His love, so He would be pleased to give him grace and 
courage, rather to be dragged into a thousand pieces than to say 
anything that might injure any person or the Divine glory. And 
so they left him without tormenting him, seeing him so resolved." 
On June 13, 1597 (in the copy it is Jan. 10, evidently a mistake), 
he writes: 3 "I wrote unto you heretofore of the remove of Mr. 

1 Stonyhurst MSS., P., vol. ii., f. 547. 

2 Ibid., Angl. A., vol. ii., n. 27; P., vol. ii., f. 604. 

3 Ibid., P., vol. ii., f. 548. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cv 

Gerard to the Tower: he hath been thrice hanged up by the 
hands, every time until he was almost dead, and that in one day 
twice. The cause was (as now I understand perfectly) for to tell 
where his Superior was, and by whom he had sent him letters 
which were delivered him from Father Persons, and he was 
discovered by one of his fellow-prisoners. The Earl of Essex 
saith he must needs honour him for his constancy." Again, a 
letter of Father Garnett to the General, in Latin, dated June n, 
1597, runs thus •} " I have written to you more than once of our 
Mr. John Gerard, that he has been thrice tortured, but that he 
has borne all with invincible courage. We have also lately heard 
for certain that the Earl of Essex praised his constancy, declaring 
that he could not help honouring and admiring the man. A 
secretary of the Royal Council denies that the Queen wishes to 
have him executed. To John this will be a great trouble." 

XVI. 

" I remained therefore in my cell, spending my time principally 
in prayer. And now again I made the Spiritual Exercises, as I 
had done at the beginning of my imprisonment, giving four or 
five hours a day to meditation for a whole month. I had a 
breviary with me, so that I was able to say my Office ; and 
every day I said a dry Mass (such as is said by those who are 
practising Mass before the Priesthood), and that with great 
reverence and desire of communicating, especially at that part 
where I should have communicated if the Sacrifice had been real. 
And these practices consoled me in my tribulation. 

" At the end of three weeks, as far as I can remember, I was 
able to move my fingers, and help myself a little, and even hold 
a knife. So when I had finished my retreat, I asked leave to have 
some books, but they only allowed me a Bible, which I obtained 
from my friends in my former prison. I sent to them for some 
money, by which means I saw that I should be able to enlist the 
sympathies of my gaoler, and induce him to allow me things, and 
even to bring me some books. My friends sent me by him all 
that I asked for. I got my gaoler to buy some large oranges, a 
fruit of which he was very fond. But besides gratifying him 

1 Stonyhurst MSS., R, vol. ii., f. 601. 
h 



cvi Life of Father John Gerard, 

with a present of them, I meditated making another use of them 
in time. 

" I now began to exercise my hands a little after dinner. 
Supper I never took, though it was always allowed ; indeed, there 
was no stint of food in the prison, all being furnished at the 
Queen's expense ; for there were given me daily six small rolls of 
very good bread. There are different scales of diet fixed in the 
prison, according to the rank of the prisoner ; the religious state, 
indeed, they take no account of, but only human rank, thus 
making most of what ought to be esteemed the least. Well, the 
exercise which I gave my hands was to cut the peel of these 
oranges into the form of crosses, and sew them two and two 
together. I made many of these crosses, and many rosaries also 
strung on silken cord. Then I asked my gaoler if he would 
carry some of these crosses and rosaries to my friends in my old 
prison ? He, seeing nothing in this to compromise him, readily 
undertook to do so. In the meanwhile, I put some of the 
orange-juice in a small jug. I was now in want of a pen, but I 
dared not openly ask for one; nay, even if I had asked, and 
obtained my request, I could at this time scarcely have written, 
or but very badly; for though I could hold a pen, I could 
hardly feel that I had anything in my fingers. The sense of 
touch was not recovered for five months, and even then not fully, 
for I was never without a certain numbness in my hands up to 
the time of my escape, which was more than six months after the 
torture. So I begged for a quill to make myself a toothpick, 
which he readily brought me. I made this into a pen fit for 
writing, then cutting off a short piece of the pointed end, I fixed 
it on a small stick. With the rest of the quill I made a tooth- 
pick, so long that nothing appeared to have been cut off, and this 
I afterwards showed my gaoler. Then I begged for some paper 
to wrap up my rosaries and crosses, and obtained his leave also 
to write a line or two with pencil on the paper, asking my friends 
to pray for me. All this he allowed, not suspecting that he was 
carrying anything but what he knew. But I had managed to write 
on the paper with some orange-juice, telling my friends to write 
back to me in the same way, but sparingly at first ; asking them 
also to give the bearer a little money, and promise him some as 



Life of Father John Gerard, cvii 

often as he should bring any crosses or rosaries from me, with a 
few words of my writing to assure them that I was well. 

"When they received the paper and the rosaries, knowing 
that I should if possible have written something with orange- 
juice, as I used to do with them, they immediately retired to 
their room, and held the paper to a fire. Thus they read all I 
had written, and wrote back to me in the same way, sending me 
some comfits or dried sweetmeats wrapped up in the paper on 
which they had written. We continued this method of commu- 
nication for about half a year ; but we soon proceeded with much 
greater confidence when we found that the man never failed to 
deliver our missives faithfully. For full three months, however, he 
had no idea that he was conveying letters to and fro. But after 
three months I began to ask him to allow me to write with a 
pencil at greater length, which he permitted. I always gave him 
these letters open, that he might see what I wrote, and I wrote 
nothing but spiritual matters that he could see, but on the blank 
part of the paper I had written with orange-juice directions 
and particular advice for my different friends, about which he 
knew nothing. 

" As it happened, indeed, I need not have been so circum- 
spect; for the man, as I found out after some time, could not 
read. He pretended, however, that he was able, and used to 
stand and look over my shoulder while I read to him what I had 
written with pencil. At length it occurred to me that possibly he 
could not read; so in order to make the trial, while he was 
looking over the paper, I read it altogether in a different way 
from what I had written. After doing this on two or three 
occasions without his taking any notice, I said openly to him, 
with a smile, that he need not look over my shoulder any more. 
He acknowledged, indeed, that he could not read, but said that he 
took great pleasure in hearing what I read to him. After this he 
let me write what I would, and carried everything as faithfully as 
ever. He even provided me with ink, and carried closed letters 
to and fro between my friends and me. For seeing that I had to 
do with very few, and those discreet and trustworthy people, and 
thinking that neither I nor they were likely to betray him, he did 
just what we asked him for a consideration, for he always 



cviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

received a stipulated payment. He begged me, however, not to 
require him to go so often to the Clink prison, lest suspicion 
should arise from these frequent visits, which might cause harm 
not only to him, but to me; he proposed, therefore, that some 
friend of mine should meet him near the Tower and deliver the 
letters to him. But I was loath to risk the safety of any one by 
putting him thus in the man's power. It made no difference to 
those already in custody; they could, without much additional 
danger, hold correspondence with me, and send me anything for 
my support by way of alms. Besides, I knew that my messenger 
would not be likely to speak of the letter he carried, as he was 
quite conscious that this would be as dangerous for himself as 
for those to whom he carried them. 

" Nay, even if he had wished he could not have done much 
injury either to me or my friends, because I took good care never 
to name any of them in my letters : but before I was in prison, 
and after, I invariably used pseudonyms which were understood 
by those to whom I wrote. Thus, I called one ' Brother,' another 
' Son,' another ' Nephew,' or ' Friend,' and so of their wives, 
calling this one 'Sister,' that one 'Niece,' or 'Daughter.' In 
this way no one not in the secret could possibly tell whom I 
meant, even if the letters had been intercepted, which they never 
were. I may add that even if the letters had been betrayed and 
read, they could never have been made further use of by the 
enemy, in allowing them to be carried to their destination to lure 
the correspondents on till they should compromise themselves, as 
was sometimes done. For I never wrote now with lemon-juice, 
as I once did in the Clink; which letter was betrayed to the 
persecutor Wade, as I before related. The reason of my doing 
so then was because there were two letters there, which had 
to be read in one place, and then carried to another. Now 
lemon-juice has this property, that what is written in it can be 
read in water quite as well as by fire, and when the paper is 
dried the writing disappears again till it is steeped afresh, or 
again held to the fire. But anything written with orange-juice is 
at once washed out by water, and cannot be read at all in that 
way ; and if held to the fire, though the characters are thus made 
to appear, and can be read, they will not disappear ; so that a 



Life of Father John Gerard. cix 

letter of this sort, once read, can never be delivered to any one 
as if it had not been read. The party will see at once that it has 
been read, and will certainly refuse and disown it, if it should 
contain anything dangerous. It was in this way I knew that my 
letters always reached my friends, and that theirs reached me in 
safety. And so our correspondence continued, I obtaining sure 
information of all my friends, and they receiving at my hands the 
consolation they sought. 

" In order, however, that matters might go on still more 
securely, I managed, through some of my friends, that John Lilly's 
release should be purchased; and from that time I always got 
him to bring to my gaoler everything that reached me from the 
outside. It was through his means too, a little later, that I 
escaped from the Tower, although nothing certainly was farther 
from my thoughts when I thus secured his services. All I had in 
view was to be able to increase my correspondence with safety. 
This went on for about four months, and after the first month I 
gave a good time to study by means of books secretly procured. 
But at this time an event occurred which caused me great 
anxiety. 

" Master Francis Page, of whom I have before spoken, was 
now living with my former host," Mr. Wiseman, " who had 
been released from prison. After my removal to the Tower, 
he got to learn in what part of it I was confined; and out 
of regard for me used to come daily to a spot from whence 
he could see my window, in order to get the chance some 
day of seeing me there. At last it so happened that going 
one day to the window (it was a warm day in summer), I 
noticed a gentleman at some distance pull off his hat as if 
to me ; then he walked to and fro, and frequently stopped and 
made pretence of arranging his hair, in order to have the oppor- 
tunity of doffing his hat to me without attracting the attention of 
others. At last I recognized him by the clothes that he was 
accustomed to wear, and made him a sign of recognition, and 
giving him my blessing, I withdrew at once from the window, 
lest others should see me, and have suspicion of him. But the 
good man was not content with this ; daily did he come for my 
blessing, and stopped some time, walking to and fro, and ever as 



ex Life of Father John Gerard. 

he turned he doffed his hat, though I frequently made signals to- 
him not to do so. At length he was noticed doing this, and one 
day as I was looking I saw him, to my great grief, seized and led 
away. He was brought to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who 
examined him about me and my friends. But he denied every- 
thing, and said that he simply walked there for his amusement, it 
being a fine open space close to the river Thames. So they 
kept him a prisoner for some days, and meanwhile by inquiry 
found that he was living with my former host. This increased 
their suspicion that he had been sent there to give me some sign. 
But as he constantly denied everything, they at last had recourse 
to me, and sent for me to be examined. Now, as I was going 
to the examination, Master Page was walking up and down with 
my gaoler in the hall, through which I was taken to the chamber 
where the authorities awaited me. Immediately I was introduced,, 
the examiners said to me : ' There is a young man here named 
Francis Page, who says he knows you and desires to speak with 
you.' 

"'He can do so if he wishes,' I replied; 'but who is this 
Francis Page ? I know no such person. 7 

" ' Not know him ? ' said they; 'he at any rate knows you so 
well that he can recognize you at a distance, and has come daily 
to salute you.' 

" I, however, maintained I knew no such man. So when they 
found they could twist nothing out of me either by wiles or 
threats, they sent me back. But as I passed again through the 
hall where Master Page was with the others, I looked all round, 
and said with a loud voice, ' Is there any one here of the name 
of Francis Page, who says he knows me well, and has often 
come before my window to see me ? Which of all these is he ? 
I know no such person, and I wonder that any one should be 
willing to injure himself by saying such things.' 

" All this while the gaoler was trying to prevent my speaking,, 
but was unable. I said this, not because I had any idea that he 
had acknowledged that he knew me, but for fear they might 
afterwards tell him of me what they had told me of him. And so 
it turned out. For they had told him already that I had acknow- 
ledged I knew him, and they had only sent for me then that he: 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxi 

might see me go in, intending to tell him I had confirmed all I 
said before. But now they could not so impose on him. For 
when he was summoned, he immediately told them what I had 
said publicly in the hall as I passed through. The men, in their 
disappointment, stormed against the gaoler and me, but being 
thus baffled, could not carry out their deception. 

" A little later they released Master Page for money, who 
soon crossed the sea, and, after going through his studies in 
Belgium, was made Priest. Thence he returned afterwards to 
England and remained mostly in London, where he was much 
beloved, and useful to many souls. One of his penitents was 
that Mistress Line whose martyrdom I have above related. In 
her house he was once taken, as I said, but that time he escaped. 
A little after he obtained his desire of being admitted into the 
Society, but before he could be sent over to Belgium for his 
noviceship, he was again taken, and being tried like gold in the 
furnace, and accepted as the victim of a holocaust, he washed his 
robe in the blood of the Lamb, and is now in the possession of 
his reward. And he sees me now no longer detained in the 
Tower while he is walking by the water of the Thames, but 
rather he beholds me on the waters, still tossed by the various 
winds and storms, while he is secure of his own eternal happiness, 
and solicitous, as I hope, for mine. Before all this, however, he 
used to say that he was much encouraged and amused by 
hearing what I said as I passed through the hall, as it enabled 
him to detect and avoid the snares of the enemy. 

" During the time I was detained at the Tower, no one was 
allowed to visit me, so that I could afford no help to souls by my 
words; by letter, however, I did what I could with those to 
whom I could venture to trust the secret of how they might 
correspond with me. Once, however, after John Lilly's release, as 
he was walking in London streets, two ladies, mother and 
daughter, accosted him, and begged him if it was by any means 
possible to bring them where they could see me. He, knowing 
the extreme danger of such an attempt, endeavoured to dissuade 
them, but they gave him no peace till he promised to open the 
matter to the gaoler, and try to get him to admit them, as if they 
were relations of his. Gained over by large promises, the man 



cxii Life of Father John Gerara, 

consented ; the ladies had also made a present of a new gown to 
his wife. They therefore, dressing themselves as simple London 
citizens, the fashion of whose garments is very different from that 
of ladies of quality, came with John Lilly under pretence of 
visiting the gaoler's wife, and seeing the lions that are kept in the 
Tower, and the other animals there which the curious are in the 
habit of coming to see. After they had seen all the sights, the 
gaoler led them within the walls of the Tower, and when he 
found a good opportunity, introduced them and John Lilly into 
my room, exposing himself to a great danger for a small gain. 
When they saw me they could not restrain themselves from running 
and kissing my feet, and even strove with one another who should 
first kiss them. For my part, I could not deny them what they 
had bought so dear, and then begged for so earnestly, but I only 
allowed them to offer this homage to me as to the prisoner of 
Christ, not as to the sinner that I am. We conversed a little, then 
leaving with me what they had brought for my use, they returned 
in safety much consoled, but not without tears, for they thought 
they should never see my face again, inasmuch as they had heard 
in the city that I was to be brought to trial and executed." 

XVII. 
" Once also Father Garnett, my Superior, sent me similar happy 
news, warning me in a letter full of consolation to prepare myself 
for death. And, indeed, I cannot deny that I rejoiced at the 
things that were said to me; but my great unworthiness prevented 
me from going into the House of the Lord. In fact, the good 
Father, though he knew it not, was to obtain this mercy before 
me ; and God grant that I may be able to follow him even at a 
distance to the Cross which he so much loved and honoured. 
God gave him the desire of his heart; for it was on the Feast 
of the Invention of the Holy Cross that he found Him Whom 
his soul loved. On this same Feast of the Holy Cross on 
which this holy Father found his crown, I received, by his 
intercession I fully believe, two great favours, of which I will 
speak further at the close of this narration; to which close, 
indeed, it behoves me to hasten, for I am conscious that I have 
already been more diffuse than such small matters warranted. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxiii 

"What good Father Garnett warned me of by letter, the enemy 
threatened also by words and acts about that time. For those 
who had come before with authority to put me to the torture, now 
came again, but with another object, to wit, to take my formal 
examination in preparation for my trial. So the Queen's Attorney 
General questioned me on all points, and wrote everything down 
in that order which he meant to observe in prosecuting me at 
the assizes, as he told me. He asked me, therefore, about my 
Priesthood, and about my coming to England as a Priest and 
a Jesuit, and inquired whether I had dealt with any to reconcile 
them to the Pope, and draw them away from the faith and 
religious profession which was approved in England. All these 
things I freely confessed that I had done; answers which 
furnished quite sufficient matter for my condemnation according 
to their laws. When they asked, however, with whom I had 
communicated in political matters, I replied that I had never 
meddled with such things. But they urged the point, and said 
it was impossible that I, who so much desired the conversion 
of England, should not have tried these means also, as being 
very well adapted to the end. To this I replied, as far as I 
recollect, in the following way : ' I will tell you my mind candidly 
in this matter, and about the State, in order that you may have 
no doubt about my intent, nor question me any more on the 
subject j and in what I say, lo ! before God and His holy Angels 
I lie not, nor do I add aught to the true feeling of my heart. 
I wish, indeed, that the whole of England should be converted 
to the Catholic and Roman faith; that the Queen, too, should 
be converted, and all the Privy Council; yourselves also, and 
all the magistrates of the realm : but so that the Queen and 
you all without a single exception should continue to hold 
the same powers and dignities that you do at present, and 
that not a single hair of your head should perish, that so 
you may be happy both in this life and the next. Do not 
think, however, that I desire this conversion for my own sake, 
in order to regain my liberty and follow my vocation in freedom. 
No; I call God to witness that I would gladly consent to be 
hanged to-morrow if all this could be brought about by that 
means. This is my mind and my desire : consequently I 



cxiv Life of Father John Gerard, 

am no enemy of the Queen's nor of yours, nor have I ever 
been so.' 

" Hereupon Mr. Attorney kept silence for a time, and then 
he began afresh to ask me what Catholics I knew ; did I know 
such-and-such? I answered, 'I do not know them.' And I 
added the usual reasons why I should still make the same 
answer even if I did know them. Upon this, he digressed to 
the question of equivocation, and began to inveigh against Father 
Southwell," whose conduct I defended by several arguments. 1 . . 

"They made no reply to me; but the Attorney General 
wrote everything down, and said he should use it against me 
at my trial in a short time. But he did not keep his word : 
for I was not worthy to enter under God's roof, where nothing 
defiled can enter. I have, therefore, still to be purified by a 
prolonged sojourn in exile, and so at length, if God please, be 
saved as by fire. 

"This my last examination was in Trinity term, as they 
call it. They have four terms in the year, during which many 
come up to London to have their causes tried, for these are 
times that the law courts are open. It is during these terms, 
on account of the great confluence of people, that they bring 
those Priests to trial whom they have determined to prosecute ; 
and probably this was what they proposed to do in my case : 
but man proposes and God disposes, and He had disposed 
otherwise. When this time, therefore, had passed away, there was 
no longer any probability that they would proceed against me 
publicly. I turned my attention consequently to study in this 
time of enforced leisure, as I thought they had now determined 
only to prevent my communication with others, and that this 
was the reason they had transferred me to my present prison, as 
being more strict and more secure." 

1 These arguments are purposely omitted in this place, and they are 
reserved for insertion later, when we propose to examine into the morality 
of the answers made by Father Gerard and others in their judicial interro- 
gations. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxv 

XVIII. 
" I thus endeavoured to conform myself to the decrees of God 
and the tyranny of man ; when lo ! on the last day of July [1597], 
the anniversary of our holy Father Ignatius' departure from this 
life, while I was in meditation and was entertaining a vehement 
desire of an opportunity for saying Mass, it came into my head 
that this really might be accomplished in the cell of a certain 
Catholic gentleman, which lay opposite mine on the other side 
of a small garden within the Tower. This gentleman 1 had been 
detained ten years in prison. He had been, indeed, condemned 
to death, but the sentence was not carried out. He was in the 
habit of going up daily on the leads of the building in which 
he was confined, which he was allowed to use as a place of 
exercise. Here he would salute me, and wait for my blessing 
on bended knees. 

" On examining this idea of mine more at leisure, I concluded 
that the matter was feasible, if I could prevail on my gaoler to 
allow me to visit this gentleman. For he had a wife who had 
obtained permission to visit him at fixed times, and bring him 
changes of linen and other little comforts in a basket; and as 
this had now gone on many years, the officers had come to be 
not so particular in examining the basket as they were at first. 
I hoped, therefore, that there would be a possibility of intro- 
ducing gradually by means of this lady all things necessary for 
the celebration of Mass, which my friends would supply. Resolv- 
ing to make the trial, I made a sign to the gentleman to attend 
to what I was going to indicate to him. I then took pen and 
paper and made as if I was writing somewhat ; then, after holding 
the paper to the fire, I made a show of reading it, and lastly I 

1 We find from an extract of one of Father Gamett's letters in the 
Stonyhurst MSS. that this gentleman's name was Arden. "Oct. 8, 1597. 
Upon St. Francis' day at night broke out of the Tower one Arden and 
Mr. Gerard the Jesuit. There is yet no inquiry after him" {P., vol. ii., 
f. 548). Father Bartoli, also, and Father More mention Arden as the name of 
Father Gerard's companion. Francis Arden was committed to the Tower, 
Feb. 22, 1584. He was probably a relation of Edward Arden, who was 
hanged Dec. 23, 1583, "protesting his innocence of every charge, and 
declaring that his only crime was the profession of the Catholic religion" 
(Rishton's Diary in the Tower). 



cxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

wrapped up one of my crosses in it, and made a sign of sending 
it over to him. I dared not speak to him across the garden, as 
what I said would easily have been heard by others. Then I 
began treating with my gaoler to convey a cross or a rosary for 
me to my fellow-prisoner, for the same man had charge of both 
of us, as we were near neighbours. At first he refused, saying 
that he durst not venture, as he had had no proof of the other 
prisoner's fidelity in keeping a secret. 'For if/ said he, 'the 
gentleman's wife were to talk of this, and it should become 
known I had done such a thing, it would be all over with me.' 
I reassured him, however, and convinced him that such a result 
was not likely, and, as I added a little bribe, I prevailed upon 
him as usual to gratify me. He took my letter, and the other 
received what I sent ; but he wrote me nothing back as I had 
requested him to do. Next morning when he made his appear- 
ance on the leads he thanked me by signs, and showed the 
cross I had sent him. 

"After three days, as I got no answer from him, I began to 
suspect the real reason, namely, that he had not read my letter. 
So I called his attention again, and went through the whole 
process in greater detail. Thus, I took an orange and squeezed 
the juice into a little cup, then I took a pen and wrote with the 
orange-juice, and holding the paper some time before the fire, 
that the writing might be visible, I perused it before him, trying 
to make him understand that this was what he should do with 
my next paper. This time he fathomed my meaning, and thus 
read the next letter I sent him. He soon sent me a reply, 
saying that he thought the first time I wanted him to burn the 
paper, as I had written a few visible words on it with pencil; 
therefore he had done so. To my proposal, moreover, he 
answered, that the thing could be done, if my gaoler would 
allow me to visit him in the evening and remain with him the 
next day; and that his wife would bring all the furniture that 
should be given her for the purpose. 

" As a next step, I sounded the gaoler about allowing me to 
visit my fellow-prisoner, and proposed he should let me go just 
once and dine with him, and that he, the gaoler, should have 
his share in the feast. He refused absolutely, and showed great 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxvii 

fear of the possibility of my being seen as I crossed the garden, 
or lest the Lieutenant might take it into his head to pay me a 
visit that very day. But as he was never in the habit of visiting 
me, I argued that it was very improbable that the thing should 
happen as he feared. After this, the golden arguments I 
adduced proved completely successful, for I promised him 
a crown for his kindness ; and he acceded to my request. 
So I fixed on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin ; and in the 
meanwhile I told my neighbour to let his wife call at such a 
place in London, having previously sent word to John Lilly 
what he should give her to bring. I told him, moreover, to 
send a pyx and a number of small hosts, that I might be able 
to reserve the Blessed Sacrament. He provided all I told him, 
and the good lady got them safely to her husband's cell. So 
on the appointed day I went over with my gaoler, and stayed 
with my fellow-prisoner that night and the next day; but the 
gaoler exacted a promise that not a word of this should be said 
to the gentleman's wife. The next morning, then, said I Mass, 
to my great consolation; and that confessor of Christ com- 
municated, after having been so many years deprived of that 
favour. In this Mass I consecrated also two-and-twenty particles, 
which I reserved in the pyx with a corporal ; these I took back 
with me to my cell, and for many days renewed the divine 
banquet with ever fresh delight and consolation." 



XIX. 

" Now while we were together that day, I — though nothing was less 
in my thoughts when I came over than any idea of escape (for I 
sought only our true deliverer, Jesus Christ, as He was prefigured 
in the little ash-baked loaf of Elias, that I might with more 
strength and courage travel the rest of my way even to the Mount 
of God), — seeing how close this part of the Tower was to the- 
moat by which it was surrounded, began to think with myself that 
it were a possible thing for a man to descend by a rope from the 
top of the building to the other side of the moat. I asked my 
companion, therefore, what he thought about it, and whether it 
seemed possible to him. 'Certainly,' said he, 'it could be done, 



cxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

if a man had some real and true friends to assist him, who 
would not shrink from exposing themselves to danger to rescue 
one they loved.' 

"'There is no want of such friends,' I replied, 'if only the 
thing is feasible and worth while trying.' 

" ' For my part,' said he, ' I should only be too glad to make 
the attempt ; since it would be far better for me to live even in 
hiding, where I could enjoy the Sacraments and the company of 
good men, than to spend my life here in solitude between four 
walls.' 

" ' Well, then,' I answered, ' let us commend the matter to 
God in prayer; in the meanwhile I will write to my Superior, 
and what he thinks best we will do.' 

"While we remained together, we took counsel on all the 
details that would have to be carried out, if the plan were adopted. 
I returned that night to my cell, and wrote a letter to Father 
Garnett by John Lilly, putting all the circumstances before him. 
He answered me that the thing should be attempted by all 
means, if I thought it could be done without danger to my life 
in the descent. 

"Upon this I wrote to" Mr. Wiseman, "my former host, telling 
him that an escape in this way could be managed, but that the 
matter must be communicated to as few as possible, lest it should 
get noised about and stopped. I appointed, moreover, John Lilly 
and Richard Fulwood, the latter of whom was at that time serving 
Father Garnett, if they were willing to expose themselves to the 
peril, to come on such a night to the outer bank of the moat 
opposite the little tower in which my friend was kept, and near 
the place where Master Page was apprehended, as I described 
foefore. They were to bring with them a rope, one end of which 
they were to tie to a stake ; then we, from the leads on the top 
of the tower, would throw over to them a ball of lead with a stout 
string attached, such as men use for sewing up bales of goods. 
This they would find in the dark by the noise it would make in 
falling, and would attach the string to the free end of their rope, 
so that we, who retained one end of the string, would thus be able 
to pull the rope up. I ordered, moreover, that they should have 
on their breasts a white paper or handkerchief, that we might 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxix 

recognize them as friends before throwing out our string, and that 
they should come provided with a boat in which we might quickly 
make our escape. 

"When these arrangements had been made and a night fixed, 
yet my host wished that a less hazardous attempt should first be 
made, by trying whether my gaoler could be bribed to let me 
out, which he could easily do by permitting a disguise. John 
Lilly therefore offered him, on the part of a friend of mine, a 
thousand florins [ioo/.] on the spot, and a hundred florins [10/.] 
yearly for his life, if he would agree to favour my escape. The 
man would not listen to anything of the kind, saying he should 
have to live an outcast if he did so, and should be sure to be 
hanged if ever he was caught. Nothing, therefore, could be done 
with him in this line. So we went on with our preparations 
according to our previous plan ; and the matter was commended 
to God with many prayers by all those to whom the secret 
was committed. One gentleman, indeed, heir to a large estate, 
made a vow to fast once a week during his life if I escaped safely. 
When the appointed night came, I prevailed on the gaoler, by 
entreaties and bribes, to allow me to visit my friend. So he 
locked us both in together with bolts and bars of iron as usual, 
and departed. But as he had also locked the inside door that 
led to the roof, we had to loosen the stone into which the bolt 
shot with our knives, or otherwise we could not get out. This 
we succeeded in doing at length, and mounted the leads softly 
and without a light, for a sentinel was placed in the garden every 
night, so that we durst not even speak to each other but in a very 
low whisper. 

"About midnight we saw the boat coming with our friends, 
namely, John Lilly, Richard Fulwood, and another, who had been 
my gaoler in the former prison, through whom they procured the 
boat, and who steered the boat himself. They neared the shore ; 
but just as they were about to land, some one came out of one 
of the poor cottages thereabouts, and seeing their boat making 
for the shore, hailed them, taking them for fishermen. The man 
indeed returned to his bed without suspecting anything, but our 
boatmen durst not venture to land till they thought the man had 
gone to sleep again. They paddled about so long, however, that 



cxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

the time slipped away, and it became impossible to accomplish 
anything that night; so they returned by London Bridge. But 
the tide was now flowing so strongly, that their boat was forced 
against some piles there fixed to break the force of the water, so 
that they could neither get on nor get back. Meanwhile, the tide 
was still rising, and now came so violently on the boat that it 
seemed as if it would be upset at every wave. Being in these 
straits, they commended themselves to God by prayers, and called 
for help from men by their cries. 

" All this while we on the top of the tower heard them shouting, 
and saw men coming out on the bank of the river with candles, 
running up and getting into their boats to rescue those in danger. 
Many boats approached them, but none durst go up to them, 
fearing the force of the current. 1 So they stood there in a sort of 
circle round them, spectators of their peril, but not daring to 
assist. I recognized Richard Fulwood's voice in the shouts, and 
said, 1 1 know it is our friends who are in danger.' My companion 
indeed did not believe I could distinguish any one's voice at that 
great distance; 2 but I knew it well, and groaned inwardly to 
think that such devoted men were in peril of their lives for my 
sake. We prayed fervently, therefore, for them, for we saw that 
they were not yet saved, though many had gone to assist them. 
Then we saw a light let down from the bridge, 3 and a sort of 
basket attached to a rope, by which they might be drawn up, if 
they could reach it. This it seems they were not able to do. 
But God had regard to the peril of His servants, and at last there 
came a strong sea-boat with six sailors, who worked bravely, and 
bringing their boat up to the one in danger, took out Lilly and 
Fulwood. Immediately they had got out, the boat they had left 
capsized before the third could be rescued, as if it had only kept 
right for the sake of the two who were Catholics. However, by 
God's mercy, the one who was thrown into the river caught a 

1 The number of piers in Old London Bridge was so large, and offered 
so great an obstruction to the water, that it was always a service of danger to 
pass under the arches while the tide was running, and often the river formed 
a regular cataract at this part. 

2 The distance would be something over half a mile. 

3 Our readers will remember that at this time each side of the bridge was 
lined with houses, which looked sheer down into the river. 



Life of Father yohn Gerard. cxxi 

rope that was let down from the bridge, and was so dragged up 
and saved. So they were all rescued and got back to their 
homes." 

XX. 

" On the following day 1 John Lilly wrote me by the gaoler as 
usual. What could I expect him to say but this : ' We see, and 
have proved it by our peril, that it is not God's will we should 
proceed any further in this business.' But I found him saying 
just the contrary. For he began his letter as follows : ' It was 
not the will of God that we should accomplish our desire last 
night; still He rescued us from a great danger, that we might 
succeed better the next time. What is put off is not cut off: 2 so 
we mean to come again to-night, with God's help.' 

" My companion, on seeing such constancy joined with such 
strong and at the same time pious affection, was greatly consoled, 
and did not doubt success. But I had great ado to obtain leave 
from the gaoler to remain another night out of my cell ; and had 
misgivings that he would discover the loosening of the stone when 
he locked the door again. He, however, remarked nothing of it. 

" In the meantime I had written three letters to be left behind. 
One was to the gaoler, justifying myself for taking this step 
without a word to him ; I told him I was but exercising my right, 
since I was detained in prison without any crime, and added that 
I would always remember him in my prayers, if I could not help 
him in any other way. I wrote this letter with the hope that if 
the man were taken into custody for my escape, it might help to 
show that he was not to blame. The second letter was to the 
Lieutenant, in which I still further exonerated the gaoler, protesting 
before God that he knew nothing whatever about my escape, 
which was, of course, perfectly true, and that he certainly would 
not have allowed it if he had suspected anything. This I con- 
firmed by repeating the very tempting offer which had been made 
him and which he had refused. As to his having allowed me to 
go to another prisoner's cell, I said I had extorted it from him 
with the greatest difficulty by repeated importunities, and therefore 

1 Oct. 4, 1597, says Father Bartoli {ZngMterra t p. 426) quoting Father 
Garnett's letter of Oct. 8. 

2 Quod differtur, non aufertur (MS.). 

i 



cxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

it would not be right that he should suffer death for it. The third 
letter was to the Lords of the Council, in which I stated first the 
causes which moved me to the recovery of my liberty, of which I 
had been unjustly deprived. It was not so much the mere love 
of freedom, I said, as the love of souls which were daily perishing 
in England that led me to attempt the escape, in order that I 
might assist in bringing them back from sin and heresy. As for 
matters of State, as they had hitherto found me averse to meddling 
with them, so they might be sure that I should continue the same. 
Besides this, I exonerated the Lieutenant and gaoler from all 
consent to, or connivance at, my escape, assuring them that I had 
recovered my liberty entirely by my own and my friends' exertions. 
I prepared another letter also, which would be taken next morning 
to my gaoler, not, however, by John Lilly, but by another, as I 
shall narrate presently. 

" At the proper hour we mounted again on the leads. The 
boat arrived and put to shore without any interruption. The 
schismatic, my former gaoler, remained with the boat, and the 
two Catholics came with the rope. It was a new rope, for they 
had lost the former one in the river on occasion of their disaster. 
They fastened the rope to a stake, as I had told them; they 
found the leaden ball which we threw, and tied the string to the 
rope. We had great difficulty, however, in pulling up the rope, 
for it was of considerable thickness, and double too. In fact, 
Father Garnett ordered this arrangement, fearing lest, otherwise, 
the rope might break by the weight of my body. But now 
another element of danger showed itself, which we had not 
reckoned on : for the distance was so great between the tower 
and the stake to which the rope was attached, that it seemed to 
stretch horizontally rather than slopingly • so that we could not 
get along it merely by our weight, but would have to propel 
ourselves by some exertion of our own. We proved this first by 
a bundle we had made of books and some other things wrapped 
up in my cloak. This bundle we placed on the double rope to 
see if it would slide down of itself, but it stuck at once. And it 
was well it did ; for if it had gone out of our reach before it stuck, 
we should never have got down ourselves. So we took the 
bundle back and left it behind. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxxiii 

" My companion, who had before spoken of the descent as a 
thing of the greatest ease, now changed his mind, and confessed 
it to be very difficult and full of danger. ' However,' said 
he, 'I shall most certainly be hanged if I remain now, for we 
cannot throw the rope back without its falling into the water, and 
so betraying us both and our friends. I will therefore descend, 
please God, preferring to expose myself to danger with the hope 
of freedom, rather than to remain here with good certainty of 
being hanged.' So he said a prayer, and took to the rope. He 
descended fairly enough, for he was strong and vigorous, and 
the rope was then taut : his weight, however, slackened it 
considerably, which made the danger for me greater, and though 
I did not then notice this, yet I found it out afterwards when I 
came to make the trial. 

"So commending myself to God, to our Lord Jesus, to the 
Blessed Virgin, to my Guardian Angel, and all my Patrons, 
particularly to Father Southwell, who had been imprisoned 
near this place for nearly three years before his martyrdom, 
to Father Walpole, and to all our Saints, I took the rope 
in my right hand and held it also with my left arm; then 
I twisted my legs about it, to prevent falling, in such a way 
that the rope passed between my shins. I descended some 
three or four yards face downwards, when suddenly my body 
swung round by its own weight and hung under the rope. 
The shock was so great that I nearly lost my hold, for I 
was still but weak, especially in the hands and arms. In 
fact, with the rope so slack and my body hanging beneath it, 
I could hardly get on at all. At length, I made a shift to get on 
as far as the middle of the rope, and there I stuck, my breath and 
my strength failing me, neither of which were very copious to 
begin with. After a little time, the Saints assisting me, and my 
good friends below drawing me to them by their prayers, I got on 
a little further and stuck again, thinking I should never be able to 
accomplish it. Yet I was loath to drop into the water as long 
as I could possibly hold on. After another rest, therefore, I 
summoned what remained of my strength, and helping myself 
with legs and arms as well as I could, I got as far as the wall on 
the other side of the moat. But my feet only touched the top of 



cxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

the wall, and my whole body hung horizontally, my head being 
no higher than my feet, so slack was the rope. In such a position r 
and exhausted as I was, it was hopeless to expect to get over the 
wall by my own unaided strength. So John Lilly got on to 
the wall somehow or other (for, as he afterwards asserted, he 
never knew how he got there), took hold of my feet, and by 
them pulled me to him, and got me over the wall on to the 
ground. But I was quite unable to stand, so they gave me some 
cordial waters and restoratives, which they had brought on 
purpose. By the help of these I managed to walk to the boat, 
into which we all entered. They had, however, before leaving 
the wall, untied the rope from the stake and cut off a part of it, 
so that it hung down the wall of the tower. We had previously, 
indeed, determined to pull it away altogether, and had with this 
object passed it round a great gun on the tower without 
knotting it. But God so willed it that we were not able by any 
exertion to get it away; and if we had succeeded, it would 
certainly have made a loud splash in the water, and perhaps have 
brought us into a worse danger. 

" On entering the boat we gave hearty thanks to God, Who 
had delivered us from the hand of the persecutor and from all 
the expectation of the people ; we returned our best thanks also 
to those who had exposed themselves to such labours and perils 
for our sakes. We went some considerable distance in the boat 
before landing. After we had landed I sent the gentleman, my 
companion, with John Lilly, to my house, of which I have before 
spoken, which was managed by that saintly widow, Mistress Line. 
I myself, however, with Richard Fulwood, went to a house which 
Father Garnett had in the suburbs ; and there Little John and I, 
a little before daylight, mounted our horses, which he had ready 
there for the purpose, and rode straight off to Father Garnett, 
who was then living a short distance in the country. 1 We got 
there by dinner-time, and great rejoicing there was on my arrival, 
and much thanksgiving to God at my having thus escaped from 
the hands of my enemies in the name of the Lord. 

;< In the meanwhile I had sent Richard Fulwood with a couple 
of horses to a certain spot, that he might be ready to ride off with 
1 This may veiy likely be White Webbs in Enfield Chase. 



Life of Father John Gercwd. cxxv 

my gaoler, if he wished to consult his immediate safety. For I 
had a letter written, of which I made previous mention, which 
was to be taken to him early in the morning at the place where 
he was accustomed to meet John Lilly. Lilly, however, did not 
carry the letter, for I had bidden him remain quiet within doors 
until such time as the storm which was to be expected had blown 
over. So another, who also knew the gaoler, took the letter, and 
gave it to him at the usual meeting-place. He was indeed 
surprised at another's coming, but took the letter without remark, 
and was about to depart with the intention of delivering it to me 
as usual ; but the other stopped him, saying, ' The letter is for 
you, and not for any one else.' 

" ' For me ? ' said the gaoler, ' from whom then does it come?' 

" ' From a friend of yours,' replied the other ; ' but who he is I 
don't know.' 

"The gaoler was still more astonished at this, and said, 'I 
cannot myself read ; if, then, it is a matter which requires 
immediate attention, pray read it for me.' 

" So the man that brought the letter read it for him. It was 
to the effect that I had made my escape from prison ; and here I 
added a few words on the reasons of my conduct, for the purpose 
of calming his mind. Then I told him, that though I was nowise 
bound to protect him from the consequences, as I had but used 
my just right, yet, as I had found him faithful in the things which 
I had intrusted him with, I was loath to leave him in the lurch. 
If, therefore, he was inclined to provide for his own safety imme- 
diately, there was a horse waiting for him with a guide who would 
bring him to a place of safety, sufficiently distant from London, 
where I would maintain him for life, allowing him two hundred 
florins [20/.] yearly, which would support him comfortably. I 
added that if he thought of accepting this offer, he had better 
settle his affairs as quickly as possible, and betake himself to the 
place which the bearer of the letter would show him. 

" The poor man was, as may well be supposed, in a great 
fright, and accepted the offer; but, as he was about to return 
to the Tower to settle matters and get his wife away, a mate of 
his met him, and said, ' Be off with you as quick as you can ; for 
your prisoners have escaped from the little tower, and Master 



cxxvi Life of Father John Gerard, 

Lieutenant is looking for you everywhere. Woe to you if he 
finds you ! ' So, returning all in a tremble to the bearer of the 
letter, he besought him for the love of God to take him at once 
to where the horse was waiting for him. He took him, therefore, 
and handed him over to Richard Fulwood, who was to be his 
guide. Fulwood took him to the house of a friend of mine 
residing at the distance of a hundred miles from London, to 
whom I had written, asking him, if such a person should come, 
to take him in and provide for him. I warned him, however, not 
to put confidence in him, nor to acknowledge any acquaintance 
with me. I told him that Richard Fulwood would reimburse him 
for all the expenses, but that he must never listen to the man if 
at any time he began to talk about me or about himself. 

" Everything was done as I had arranged ; my friend received 
no damage, and the gaoler remained there out of danger. After 
a year he went into another county, and, becoming a Catholic, 
lived there comfortably for some five years with his family on the 
annuity which I sent him regularly according to promise. He 
died at the end of those five years, having been through that 
trouble rescued by God from the occasions of sin, and, as I hope, 
brought to Heaven. I had frequently in the prison sounded him 
in matters of religion ■ and though his reason was perfectly con- 
vinced, I was never able to move his will. My temporal escape, 
then, I trust, was by the sweet disposition of God's merciful 
providence the occasion of his eternal salvation. 

" The Lieutenant of the Tower, when he could not find either 
his prisoners or their gaoler, hastened to the Lords of the Council 
with the letters which he had found. They wondered greatly 
that I should have been able to escape in such a way ; but one 
of the chief members of the Council, as I afterwards heard, said 
to a gentleman who was in attendance that he was exceedingly 
glad I had got off. And when the Lieutenant demanded 
authority and assistance to search all London for me, and any 
suspected places in the neighbourhood, they all told him it would 
be of no use. ' You cannot hope to find him,' said they ; ' for if 
he had such determined friends as to accomplish what they have, 
depend upon it they will have made further arrangements, and 
provided horses and hiding-places to keep him quite out of your 



Life of Father yohn Gerard. cxxvii 

reach.' They made search, however, in one or two places, but 
no one of any mark was taken that I could ever hear of. 

" For my part, I remained quietly with Father Garnett for a 
few days, both to recruit myself and to allow the talk about my 
escape to subside. Then my former hosts, who had proved 
themselves such devoted friends, urged my return to them, first 
to their London house close to the Clink prison, where they 
were as yet residing. So I went to them, and remained there 
in secrecy, admitting but very few visitors ; nor did I ever leave 
the house except at night, a practice I always observed when in 
London, though at this time I did even this very sparingly, and 
visited only a few of my chief friends. 

" At this time I also visited my house, which was then under 
the care of Mistress Line, afterwards martyred. Another future 
martyr was then residing there of whom I have previously spoken, 
namely, Mr. Robert Drury, Priest. In this house about this time 
I received a certain parson who had been chaplain to the Earl of 
Essex in his expedition against the Spanish King, when he took 
Cadiz. He was an eloquent man and learned in languages ; and 
when converted to the Catholic faith he had abandoned divers 
great preferments, nay, had likewise endured imprisonment for 
his religion. Hearing that he had an opportunity of making his 
escape, I offered that he should come to my house. There I 
maintained him for two or three months, during which time I 
gave him the Spiritual Exercises. In the course of his retreat, he 
came to the determination of offering himself to the Society; 
upon which I asked him to tell me candidly how he, who had 
been bred up in Calvin's bosom as it were, had been accustomed 
to military life, and had learnt in heresy and had long been 
accustomed to prefer his own will to other people's, could bring 
himself to enter the Society, where he knew, or certainly should 
know, that the very opposite principles prevailed. To this he 
replied, 'There are three things, in fact, which have especially 
induced me to take this step. First, because I see that heretics 
and evil livers hold the Society in far greater detestation than 
they do any other Religious Order; from which I judge that it has 
the Spirit of God in an especial degree, which the spirit of the 
devil cannot endure, and that it has been ordained by God to 



cxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

destroy heresy, and wage war against sin in general. Secondly, 
because all ecclesiastical dignities are excluded by its Constitu- 
tions, whence it follows that there is in it a greater certainty of a 
pure intention; and as its more eminent members are not taken 
from it for the Episcopate, it is more likely to retain its first 
fervour and its high estimation for virtue and learning. Thirdly, 
because in it obedience is cultivated with particular care, a virtue 
for which I have the greatest veneration, not only on account 
of the excellent effects produced thereby in the soul, but also 
because all things must needs go on well in a body where the 
wills of the members are bound together, and all are directed 
by God.' 

" These were his reasons; so I sent him into Belgium, that 
he might be forwarded to the College at Rome by Father Holt, 
giving him three hundred florins [30/.] for his expenses. I gave 
the Spiritual Exercises also to some others in that house before 
I gave it up, among whom was a pious and good Priest named 
Woodward, who also found a vocation to the Society, and after- 
wards passed into Belgium with the intention of entering it; 
but as there was a great want of English Priests in the army at 
the time, he was appointed to that work, and died in it, greatly 
loved and reverenced by all. 

"I did not, however, keep that house long after the recovery 
of my liberty, because it was now known to a large number of 
persons, and was frequented during my imprisonment by many 
more than I should have permitted if I had been free. My 
principal reason, however, for giving it up was because it was 
known to the person who had been the cause of my being sent to 
the Tower. He had indeed expressed sorrow for his act, and 
had written to me to beg my pardon, which I freely gave him ; 
yet, as he was released from prison soon after my escape, and I 
found that those among whom he had lived had no very good 
opinion of his character, I did not think it well that a thing 
involving the safety of many should remain within his know- 
ledge. Mistress Line, also, a woman of singular prudence and 
virtue, was of the same mind. So I determined to make other 
arrangements as soon as possible." . . . 

" It seemed best, therefore, that Mistress Line should lodge 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxxix 

for a space by herself in a hired room of a private house ; while 
I, who did not wish to be without a place in London where I 
could safely admit some of my principal friends, and perhaps 
house a Priest from time to time, joined with a prudent and pious 
gentleman, who had a wife of similar character, in renting a large 
and spacious house between us. Half the house was to be for 
their use and the other half for mine, in which I had a fair chapel 
well provided and ornamented. Hither I resorted when I came 
to London, and here also I sent from time to time those I would, 
paying a certain sum for their board. In this way I expended 
scarce half the amount I did formerly under the other arrange- 
ment, when I was obliged to maintain a household whether there 
were any guests in the house or not; though indeed it was seldom 
that the house was empty of guests. 

" I made this new provision for my own and my friends' 
accommodation just in good time ; for most certainly had I 
remained in my former house I should have been taken again. 
The thing happened in this wise. The Priest who, as I have 
related, got me promoted from a more obscure prison to a 
nobler one, began to importune me with continual letters that 
I would grant him an interview. Partly by delaying to answer 
him, partly by excusing myself on the score of occupation, I put 
him off for about half a year. At length he urged his request 
very pressingly, and complained to me by letter that I showed 
contempt of him. I sent him no answer, but on a convenient 
occasion, knowing where he lodged, I despatched a friend to him 
to tell him that if he wished to see me, he must come at once 
with the messenger. I warned the messenger, however, not to 
permit any delay, nor to allow him to write anything nor address 
any one on the way if he wished to have an interview with me. 
I arranged, moreover, that he should be brought not to any 
house, but to a certain field near one of the Inns of Court, which 
was a common promenade, and that the messenger should walk 
there alone with him till I came. It was at night, and there was 
a bright moon. I came there with a couple of friends, in case 
any attempt should be made against me, and making a half 
circuit outside (that he might not know in what part of London I 
lived), I happened to enter the field near the house of a Catholic 



cxxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

which adjoined it ; and our good friend catching first sight of 
me near this house, thought perhaps that I came out of it, and in 
fact the Archpriest was lodging in it at the time. However that 
may be, I found him there walking and waiting for me, and when 
I had heard all he had to say, I saw that there was nothing which 
he had not already said in his letters, and to which he had 
not had my answer. My suspicion was therefore increased, and 
certainly not without reason. For within a day or two that 
corner house -near which he saw me enter the field, and my old 
house which I had lately left (though he knew not that I had left 
it), were both of them surrounded and strictly searched on the same 
night and at the same hour. The Archpriest was all but caught 
in the one ; he had just time to get into a hiding-place, and so 
escaped. 1 The search lasted two whole days in the other house, 
which the Priest knew me to have occupied at one time. The 
Lieutenant of the Tower and the Knight Marshal 2 conducted the 
searches in person, a task they never undertake unless one of 
their prisoners has escaped. From these circumstances it is 
sufficiently clear, both of whom they were in search and from 
whom they got their information. 

" But when they found me not (nor indeed did they find the 
Priest who was then in the house, living with a Catholic to whom 
I had let it), they sent pursuivants on the next day to the house 
of my host, who had by this time returned to his country seat, 
but by God's mercy they did not find me there either. It was 
well, therefore, that I acted cautiously with the above-mentioned 
Priest, and also that I had so opportunely changed my residence 
in London." 

1 Atkinson was not always so unsuccessful. Sir Robert Cecil endorsed the 
letter quoted in a former note, "Atkinson's letter, the Priest that discovered 
Tychburn and was brought me by Mr. Fouler." Thomas Tichburn suffered at 
Tyburn, April 20, 1601, for his Priesthood. 

2 The Knight Marshal had jurisdiction within the precincts of the Court, 
that is, twelve miles from the lodging of the Sovereign, even on a progress, 
though not a chase. The Marshalsea was the prison originally attached to the 
King's house, and at first was intended only for the committal of persons accused 
of offences within the jurisdiction of the Knight Marshal. It stood in High- 
street, Southwark, on the south side, between King-street and Mermaid-court, 
over against Union-street (Cunningham's Handbook of London, p. 316). Queen 
Elizabeth's Knight Marshal was Sir Thomas Gerard, already mentioned as 
created by King James Lord Gerard of Gerard's Bromley. 



Life of Father John Gerard, cxxxi 

XXI. 

" I saw also that it would soon be necessary for me to give up 
my present residence in the country, and betake myself else- 
where ; otherwise those good and faithful friends of mine," the 
Wisemans, " would always be suffering some annoyance for my 
sake. I proposed the matter, therefore, to them, but they refused 
to listen to me in this point, though in all other things they were 
most obedient. But I thought more of their peace than of their 
wishes, however pious these wishes were ; and therefore I laid 
the matter before my Superior, 1 who approved my views. So I 
obtained from Father Garnett another of ours, a pious and 
learned man, whom I had known at Rome, and who at that 
time was companion to Father Ouldcorne, of blessed memory ; 
this was Father Richard Banks, now professed of four vows. 
I took him to live with me for a time, that I might by degrees 
introduce him into the family in my place ; and in the meantime 
I made more frequent excursions than usual. 

" In one of these excursions I visited a noble family, by 
whom I had long been invited and often expected, but I had 
never yet been able to visit them on account of my pressing 
occupations. Here I found the lady of the house, a widow, 
very pious and devout, but at this present overwhelmed with 
grief at the loss of her husband. She had, indeed, been so 
affected by this loss that for a whole year she scarce stirred out 
of her chamber, and for the next three years which had inter- 
vened before my visit, had never brought herself to go to that 
part of the mansion in which her husband had died. To this 
grief and trouble were added certain anxieties about the bringing 
up of her son, who was yet a child under his mother's care. He 
was one of the first Barons of the realm ; but his parents had 

1 About this time Father Garnett thought of sending Father Gerard out of 
England, evidently from fear lest, owing to his zeal, he should be recaptured 
and be still more hardly dealt with, for on March 31, 1598, he wrote to Rome, 
probably to Father Persons : ' ' Father Gerard is much dismayed this day when 
I wrote to him to prepare himself to go. He came to me of purpose. Indeed 
he is very profitable to me, and his going would be wondered at. I hope he 
will walk warily enough. . . . You know my mind ; if you think it good, I 
desire his stay. All the rest are well" (Stonyhurst MSS., P., vol. ii., f. 551). 



cxxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

suffered so much for the Faith, and had mortgaged so much of 
their property to meet the constant exactions of an heretical 
Government, that the remaining income was scarcely sufficient 
for their proper maintenance. But a wise woman builds up her 
house and is proved in it." . . . 

This lady was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Roper, who 
was raised to the peerage in 1616 as Lord Teynham. In 1590 1 
she married George, the second son of William, Lord Vaux of 
Harrowden, but her husband died in 1594, during the lifetime of 
his father. When in the following year her father-in-law also died, 
she was left in charge of her infant son, Edward fourth Baron 
Vaux. 

As she wished me to reside in her house, " on my return to 
London I proposed the matter to Father Garnett, who was much 
rejoiced at the offer, knowing the place to be one where much 
good might be done both directly and indirectly. He said, too, 
that the offer had occurred most opportunely, for that there 
were some Catholics in another county more to the north, 
where Catholics were more numerous and there was no Priest 
of the Society, who had been long petitioning for the Father at 
present stationed at that house, and who would much rejoice 
at the prospect of having him among them. To this I urged 
that the place was large enough for two, and that I very much 
desired to have a companion of the Society with me, and I 
requested that he would assign me Father John Percy, with 
whom I had become acquainted during my imprisonment, not 
indeed personally, but by frequent interchange of letters. This 
Father had been brought prisoner from Flanders to Holland, 2 



1 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 233, n. 3. 

2 "He was sent to Tournay for his Noviceship in 1594, and towards the 
end of his second year over-application had so injured his head that he had to 
be forbidden to use any kind of prayer. Sent to recruit in his native air, he 
passed through Holland on his way to England. At Flushing he was taken 
by some English soldiers. The letter he was carrying showing who he was, 
they threatened him with torture unless he would say who had brought him 
over from Rotterdam. He was ready to confess anything about himself, but 
he would say nothing of any one else ; so, instead of offering, as he had hoped 
to do that day, the Sacrifice of the Body of Christ, he offered that of his own, 
to undergo anything rather than injure others. They hung him up by the 
hands to a pulley, and then tortured him by twisting a sailor's rope round his 



Life of Father John Gerard, cxxxiii 

where he was recognized and tortured ; he was afterwards thrown 
into the foul gaol of Bridewell, and after remaining there some 
time made a shift to escape from a window with another Priest, 
letting himself down with a rope. Mistress Line made him 
welcome in my house, where he tarried for a time ; but soon after 
went down into the county of York, and dwelt there with a pious 
Catholic. In this part he made himself so dear to every one, that 
though I had Father Garnett's consent, it was a full year before 
I could get him away from them. 

" Since now to the desire of this noble widow was added the 
approval of Father Garnett, I so settled my affairs as to provide 
amply for the security and advantage of my former hosts. For I 
left with them Father Banks, a most superior man in every 
respect ; and although at first my old friends did not value him 
so much, yet, as they became better acquainted, they found that 
the good account I had given them was no more than the 
truth, and soon came to esteem him as a father. I often 
afterwards visited their house, where I had found so great faith 
and piety. 

"When I was domiciled in my new residence, I began by 
degrees to wean my hostess' mind from that excessive grief; 
showing how that we ought to mourn moderately only over our 
dead, and not to grieve like those who have no hope. I added 
that as her husband had become a Catholic before his death, one- 
little prayer would do him more good than many tears ; that our 
tears should be reserved for our own and others' sins, for our 
own souls stood in need of floods of that cleansing water, 
and it was to the concerns of our own souls that all our 



head. During the torture he fixed his mind on the eternity of either pain or 
joy, and uttered nothing but ' O eternity ! ' The harm the soldiers tried to do 
him turned out a remedy; for the head-ache and singing in the head, from 
which he had suffered in the Noviceship, diminished from that time and 
gradually ceased. He was taken to London in custody and committed to 
Bridewell, where his cell was an utterly unfurnished turret. He bed was the 
brick floor and a little straw, till he was helped by the care and charity of his 
Catholic fellow-prisoners, and of our Father Gerard. The latter, who was in 
the Clink, kept up a secret correspondence with him, and came to his help 
both with his advice and money. After about seven months he succeeded in 
making his escape through the tiling, together with two other Priests and 
seven laymen " (Father More, Historia Provincial, 1. viii, c. 23). 



cxxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

thoughts and labours should be turned. I then taught her the 
use of meditation, rinding her quite capable of profiting by it, 
for her mental powers were of a very high order. I thus gradually 
brought her first to change that old style of grief for a more 
worthy one; then to give eternal concerns the preference over 
worldly matters ; and to consider how she might transform her 
life, which before was good and holy, into better and holier, by 
endeavouring as much as she could to imitate the life of our Lord 
and of His Saints. 

" She was ready to set up her residence wherever I judged it 
best for the good of religion, whether in London, 1 or in the most 
remote part of the island, as she often protested to me. I 
considered, however, that though a residence in or near London 
would be better for the gaining of souls, yet that it was not at 
present very safe for me ; nor, indeed, could she remain there in 
private, since she was well known for a Catholic, and the Lords of 
the Council demanded from her frequent accounts of her son, the 
Baron, where and how he was educated. Moreover, as she had 
the management of her son's estate while he was a minor, 
stewards and bailiffs, and other such persons, must have constant 
communication with her ; so that it was quite out of the question 
her living near London under an assumed name; yet this was 
absolutely necessary if a person wished to carry on the good work 
in that neighbourhood. It was thus those ladies did with whom 
Father Garnett lived so long, who were in fact sisters of this lady's 



1 The confession of Ralph Myller (9 Oct. 1584) gives us an insight into the 
late Lord Vaux's London house: "This examinant did afterwards meet one 
Robert Browne, who hath an uncle a Priest with the Lord Vaux, who is a 
little man with white head, and a little brown hair on his face, goeth in an 
ash-colour doublet coat and a gown faced with cony, and he was made Priest 
long sithence at Cambray as this exanimate thinketh. This examinant spoke 
with the Lord Vaux and with his lady at Hackney, after that his son, Mr. 
George, and the said Robert Browne had told him that this examinant was a 
tailor of Rhemes ; and on Sunday was fortnight this examinant did hear Mass 
there, whereat were present about xviii. persons, being my lord's household, 
and the Priest last before named said the Mass. The said Priest lieth in a 
chamber beyond the hall, on the left hand the stair that leadeth to the 
chambers, and the Mass is said in the chapel, being right over the port 
entering into the hall ; and the way into it is up the stair aforesaid, on the 
left hand, at the further end of the gallery : and there is a very fair crucifix of 
silver" (P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 173, n. 64). 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxxxv 

deceased husband, one unmarried, the other a widow. 1 I saw, 
therefore, no fitter place for her to fix her residence than where 
she was among her own people, where she had the chief people 
of the county connected with her and her son, either by blood 
or friendship. 

"The only difficulty which remained was about the exact 
spot. The house in which she was actually living was not only 
old, but antiquated. It had been the residence of her husband's 
father, who had married a wife who was a better hand at spending 
than at gathering, and consequently the house was very poorly 
appointed for a family of their dignity. There was another and 
larger house of theirs at" Great Harrowden, "a distance of 
about three miles, which had been the old family seat. This 
had also been neglected, so that it was in some part quite 
ruinous, and not fit for our purpose, namely, to receive the 
Catholic gentry who might come to visit me. In addition to 
this, it was not well adapted for defence against any sudden 
intrusions of the heretics, and consequently we should not be 
able to be as free there as my hostess wished. Her desire was 
to have a house where we might as nearly as possible conform 
ourselves to the manner of life followed in our Colleges; and 
this in the end she brought about. 

" She sought everywhere for such a house, and we looked at 
many houses in the county ; but something or other was always 
wanting to her wishes. At last we found a house which had been 
built by the late Chancellor of England, 2 who had died childless, 
and was now to be let for a term of years. It was truly a princely 
place, large and well built, surrounded by gardens and orchards, 
and so far removed from other houses that no one could notice 
our coming in or going out. This house she took on payment of 
fifteen thousand florins [1,500/.], and began to fit it up for our 

1 Anne Vaux and Eleanor, widow of Edward Brooksby, daughters of 
William third Lord Vaux, by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John 
Beaumont of Gracedieu, in Leicestershire, Esq. The mother of George Vaux 
was Mary, sister of Sir Thomas Tresham, of Rushton, in Northamptonshire, 
Knight. 

2 Sir Christopher Hatton, who died childless, November 21, 1591, had 
built a country house at Stoke Pogis, Bucks (Campbell's Lives of the 
Chancellors, 3rd edit., vol. ii., p. 180). 



cxxxvi Life of Father John Gerard, 

accommodation. She wished to finish the alterations before we 
removed thither; but man proposes, and God disposes as He 
wills, though always for the best, and for the true good of His 
elect. 

" When I came to the lady's house, she had a great number of 
servants, some heretics, others indeed Catholics, but allowing 
themselves too much liberty. By degrees things got into better 
order ; some became Catholics ; others, through public and 
private exhortations, became by the grace of God more fervent ; 
and some, of whom there did not appear any hope of amend- 
ment, were dismissed. There was one who brought great 
trouble on us. For on one occasion when we were in London, 
either from thoughtlessness or loquacity, or because the yoke 
of a stricter discipline, now begun in the family, sat uneasily 
upon him, he said to a false brother that I had lately come to live 
at his lady's house, and had carried on such and such doings 
there ; and that I was then in London at such a house, naming 
the house of which I rented half, as I have before said ; he told 
him also that he himself had gone to that house with his lady 
at a time when she and I were in town on business connected 
with her son, and that he had seen the master and mistress of 
that house when they called on his lady, as they had often done. 
My hostess had now returned into the country with this servant, 
leaving me for a short time in town. But the man had left this 
tale behind him, which soon came to the ears of the Council, how 
that I had my residence with such a lady, and was at this 
moment at such a house in London. They instantly, therefore, 
commissioned two Justices of the Peace to search the house. 

" I, who had no inkling of such a danger, had remained in 
town for certain business, and was giving a retreat to three 
gentlemen in the house before mentioned. One of these three 
gentlemen was Master Roger Lee, now Minister in the English 
College of St. Omers. He was a gentleman of high family, and 
of so noble a character and such winning manners that he 
was a universal favourite, especially with the nobility, in whose 
company he constantly was, being greatly given to hunting, 
hawking, and all other noble sports. He was, indeed, excellent 
at everything, but he was withal a Catholic, and so bent on the 



/ Life of Father John Gerard. cxxxvii 

study of virtue that he was meditating a retreat from the world 
and a more immediate following of Christ. He used frequently 
to visit me when I was in the Clink prison, and I clearly saw 
that he was called to greater things than catching birds of the 
air, and that he was meant rather to be a catcher of men. I had 
now, therefore, fixed a time with this gentleman and good friend 
of mine, in which he should seek out, by means of the Spiritual 
Exercises, the strait path that leads to life, under the guidance of 
Him Who is Himself the Way and the Life. 

" But while he and the others were engaged privately in their 
chambers in the study of this heroic philosophy, suddenly the 
storm burst upon us. I, too, in fact, after finishing my business 
in town, had taken the opportunity of a little quiet to begin my 
own retreat, giving out that I had returned into the country. I 
was now in the fourth or fifth day of the retreat, when about three 
o'clock in the afternoon John Lilly hurried to my room, and 
without knocking, entered with his sword drawn. 

"Surprised at this sudden intrusion, I asked what was the 
matter. 

" ' It is a matter of searching the house,' he replied. 

"'What house?' 

" ' This very house : and they are in it already !' 

" In fact, they had been cunning enough to knock gently, as 
friends were wont to do, and the servant opened readily to them, 
without the least suspicion until he saw them rush in and scatter 
themselves in all directions. 

"While John was telling me this, up came the searching party, 
together with the mistress of the house, to the very room in which 
we were. Now, just opposite to my room was the chapel, so that 
from the passage the door of the chapel opened on the one hand, 
and that of my room on the other. The magistrates, then, seeing 
the door of the chapel open, went in, and found there an altar 
richly adorned, and the priestly vestments laid out close by, so 
handsome as to cause expressions of admiration from the heretics 
themselves. In the meanwhile I, in the room opposite, was quite 
at my wit's end what to do ; for there was no hiding-place in the 
room, nor any means of exit except by the open passage were the 
enemy were. However, I changed the soutane which I was 
J 



cxxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

wearing for a secular coat, but my books and manuscript medi- 
tations, which I had there in considerable quantities, I was quite 
unable to conceal. 

" We stood there with our ears close to the chink of the door, 
listening to catch what they said : and I heard one exclaim from 
the chapel, ' Good God ! what have we found here ? I had no 
thoughts of coming to this house to-day!' From this I concluded 
that it was a mere chance search, and that they had no special 
warrant. Probably, therefore, I thought they had but few men 
with them. So we began to consult together whether it were not 
better to rush out with drawn swords, seize the keys from the 
searching party, and so escape ; for we should have Master Lee 
and the master of the house to help us, besides two or three 
men-servants. Moreover, I considered that if we should be 
taken in the house, the master would certainly be visited with a 
far greater punishment than what the law prescribes for resistance 
to a magistrate's search. 

"While we were thus deliberating, the searchers came to the 
door of my room and knocked. We made no answer, but pressed 
the latch hard down, for the door had no bolt or lock. As they 
continued knocking, the mistress of the house said, ' Perhaps the 
man-servant who sleeps in that room may have taken away the 
key. I will go and look for him.' 

" ' No, no,' said they, 'you go nowhere without us, or you will 
be hiding away something.' 

"And so they went with her, not staying to examine whether 
the door had a lock or not. Thus did God blind the eyes of the 
Assyrians, that they should not find the place, nor the means of 
hurting His servants, nor know where they were going. 

" When they had got below-stairs, the mistress of the house, 
who had great presence of mind, took them into a room in which 
some ladies were, the sister, namely, of my hostess in the country, 
and Mistress Line ; and while the magistrates were questioning 
these ladies, she ran up to us, saying, 'Quick, quick! get into 
the hiding-place !' She had scarce said this and run down again, 
before the searchers had missed her and were for remounting the 
stairs. But she stood in their way on the bottom step, so that 
they immediately suspected what the case was, and were eager to 



Life of Father Joh,7i Gerard. cxxxix 

get past This, however, they could not do without laying 
forcible hands on the lady, a thing which, as gentlemen, they 
shrank from doing. One of them, however, as she stood there 
purposely occupying the whole width of the stair-way, thrust his 
head past her, in hopes of seeing what was going on above-stairs. 
And indeed he almost caught sight of me as I passed along to 
the hiding-place. For as soon as I heard the lady's words of 
warning, I opened the door, and with the least possible noise 
mounted from a stool to the hiding-place, which was arranged in 
a secret gable of the roof. When I had myself mounted, I bade 
John Lilly come up also, but he, more careful of me than of 
himself, refused to follow me, saying : ' No, Father ; I shall not 
come. There must be some one to own the books and papers 
in your room ; otherwise, upon finding them, they will never rest 
till they have found you too : only pray for me.' 

" So spoke this truly faithful and prudent servant, so full of 
charity as to offer his life for his friend. There was no time for 
further words. I acquiesced reluctantly and closed the small 
trap-door by which I had entered, but I could not open the door 
of the inner hiding-place, so that I should infallibly have been 
taken if they had not found John Lilly, and mistaking him for a 
Priest ceased from any further search. For this was what 
happened, God so disposing it, and John's prudence and 
intrepidity helping thereto. 

" For scarcely had he removed the stool by which I mounted, 
and had gone back to the room and shut the door, when the 
two chiefs of the searching party again came upstairs and 
knocked violently at the door, ready to break it open if the 
key were not found. Then the intrepid soldier of Christ threw 
open the door and presented himself undaunted to the perse- 
cutors. 

" 'Who are you ? ' they asked. 

" ' A man, as you see,' he replied. 

" ' But what are you ? Are you a Priest ? ' 

" ' I do not say I am a Priest,' replied John ; 'that is for you 
to prove. But I am a Catholic certainly.' 

" Then they found there on the table all my meditations, my 
breviary, and many Catholic books, and what grieved me most 



cxl Life of Father John Gerard. 

of all to lose, my manuscript sermons and notes for sermons, 
which I had been writing or compiling for the last ten years, 
and which I made more account of, perhaps, than they did of 
all their money. After examining all these they asked whose 
they were. 

" ' They are mine,' said John. 

"'Then there can be no doubt you are a Priest. And this 
cassock, whose is this ? ' 

'"That is a dressing-gown, to be used for convenience now 
and then.' 

" Convinced now that they had caught a Priest, they carefully 
locked up all the books and papers in a box, to be taken away 
with them. Then they locked the chapel door and put their seal 
upon it, and taking John by the arm they led him downstairs, 
and delivered him into the custody of their officers. Now when 
he entered with his captors into the room where the ladies were, 
he, who at other times was always wont to conduct himself with 
humility and stand uncovered in such company, now, on the 
contrary, after saluting them, covered his head and sat down. 
Nay, assuming a sort of authority, he said to the magistrates : 
' These are noble ladies ; it is your duty to treat them with 
consideration. I do not, indeed, know them, but it is quite 
evident that they are entitled to the greatest respect.' 

" I should have mentioned that there was a second Priest in 
the house with me, Father Pullen, 1 an old man, who had quite 
lately made his noviceship at Rome. He luckily had a hiding- 
place in his room, and had got into it at the first alarm. 

"The ladies, therefore, now perceiving that I was safe, and that 
the other Priest had also escaped, and seeing also John's assumed 
dignity, could scarce refrain from showing their joy. They made 
no account now of the loss of property, or the annoyance they 
should have to undergo from the suspicion of having had a Priest 
in the house. They wondered indeed and rejoiced, and almost 
laughed to see John playing the Priest, for so well did he do it 
as to deceive those deceivers, and divert them from any further 
search." 

1 Patrem Pulvium (MS.). We give the English form of the name on the 
authority of Dr. Oliver, in his Collectanea, s.v. Pullen. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxli 

XXII. 

" The magistrates who had searched the house took away John 
Lilly with them, and the master of the house also with his two 
men-servants, under the idea that all his property would be 
confiscated for harbouring a Priest. 1 The ladies, however, 
represented that they had merely come to pay an after-dinner 
visit to the mistress of the house, without knowing anything about 
a Priest being there • so they were let off on giving bail to appear 
when summoned. The same favour was ultimately shown to 
Master Roger Lee, though it was with greater difficulty the 
magistrates could be persuaded that he was only a visitor. At 
last, then, they departed well satisfied, and locked .up their 
prisoners for the night to wait their morrow's examination. 

" Immediately on their departure, the mistress of the house 
and those other ladies came with great joy to give me notice ; 
and we all joined in giving thanks to God, Who had delivered us 
all from such imminent danger by the prudence and fidelity of 
one. Father Pullen and I removed that very night to another 
place, lest the searchers should find out their error and return. 

"The next day I made a long journey to my hostess' house in 
the country, and caused much fear, and then much joy, as I 
related all that God had done for us. Then we all heartily 
commended John Lilly to God in prayer. And, indeed, there 
was reason enough to do so. For the magistrates, making full 
inquiries the next day, found that John had been an apothecary 
in London for seven years, and then had been imprisoned 
in the Clink for eight or nine more, and that he had been the 
person who had communicated with me in the Tower, for the 
gaoler's wife had been apprehended after her husband's flight, and 
had confessed so much. They saw, therefore, clearly that they 
had been tricked, and that John was not a Priest, but a Priest's 
servant ; and they now began to have a shrewd suspicion, though 

1 In the Public Record Office there is a letter, dated July 22, 1599, 
purporting to be from Francis Cordale to his partner Balthasar Gybels, at 
Antwerp, which says, " I wrote to you of one Mr. Heywood's house searched 
and a man there taken. I have learned his name since to be John Lilly. He 
is sent to the Tower upon suspicion of helping Gerard the Jesuit out of the 
same place" (Do?nestic ) Eliz., vol. 271, n. 107). 



cxlii Life of Father John Gerard. 

rather too late, that I had been hidden at the time in the same 
house where they caught him, especially as they found so many 
books and writings which they did not doubt were mine. They 
sent, therefore, to search the house again, but they found only 
an empty nest, for the birds were flown. 

" John was carried to the Tower and confined there in chains. 
Then they examined him about my escape, and about all the 
places he had been to with me since. He, seeing that his 
dealings with the gaoler were already known to them, and 
desirous (if God would grant him such a favour), to lay down 
his life for Christ, freely confessed that it was he who had 
compassed my deliverance, and that he took great pleasure in 
the thought of having done so ; he added that he was in the 
mind to do the same again if occasion required and opportunity 
offered. The gaoler, however, he exonerated, and protested that 
he was not privy to the escape. With regard to the places where 
he had been with me, he answered (as he had been often taught 
to do) that he would bring no one into trouble, and that he would 
not name a single place, for to do so would be a sin against 
charity and justice. Upon this they said they would not press 
him any further in words, but would convince him by deeds that 
he must tell them all they wanted. John replied : ' It is a thing 
that, with the help of God, I will never do. You have me in 
your power ; do what God permits you.' 

" Then they took him to the torture-chamber, and hung him 
up in the way I have before described, and tortured him cruelly 
for the space of three hours. But nothing could they wring from 
him that they could use either against me or against others, so that 
from that time they gave up all hope of obtaining anything against 
any one from him either by force or fear. Consequently they 
tortured him no more, but kept him in the closest custody for 
about four months to try and tire him into compliance. Failing 
also in this, and seeing that their pains availed them nothing, they 
sent him to another prison, where prisoners are usually sent who 
are awaiting execution, and probably it was their intention to deal 
that way with him, but God otherwise determined. For after 
a long detention here, and having been allowed a little commu- 
nication with other Catholic prisoners, he was asked by a certain 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxliii 

Priest to assist him in making his escape. Turning his attention, 
therefore, to the matter, he found a way by which he delivered 
both the Priest and himself from captivity. 

"I ought not, however, to omit an incident that happened 
during his detention in the Tower, since it is in such things that 
the dealings of God's providence are often to be very plainly 
recognized. While he was under examination about me and 
others of the Society, Wade, who was at that time the chief 
persecutor, asked him if he knew Garnett. John said he 
did not. 

" ' No ? ' said Wade, with a sour smile ; ' and you don't know 
his house in the Spiral 1 either, I dare say! I don't mind letting 
you know,' he continued, ' now that I have you safe, that I am 
acquainted with his residence, and that we are sure of having 
him here in a day or two to keep you company. For when he 
comes to London he puts up at that house, and then we shall 
catch him.' 

"John knew well that the house named was Father Garnett's 
resort, and was in great distress to find that the secret had been 
betrayed to the enemy; and, though kept as close as possible, 
yet he managed in a few days by God's good providence 
to get an opportunity of sending some little article wrapped 
up in blank paper to a friend in London. His friend on 
receiving it carefully smoothed out the paper and held it to 
the fire, knowing that John would be likely to communicate by 
the means of orange-juice if he had the opportunity, and there 
he found it written that this residence of Father Garnett's had 
been betrayed, and that Father Garnett must be warned of it. 
This was instantly done, and in this way the Father was saved, 
for otherwise he would assuredly, as Wade had said, have betaken 
himself to that house in a day or two. Now, however, he not 
only did not go, but took all his things away, so that when the 
house was searched they found nothing. Had it not been for 
this providential warning from our greatest enemy, they would 

1 Tali loco qui vocatur Spitell (MS). Spitalfields, a district without 
Bishopsgate, once belonged to the Priory and Hospital of St. Mary Spital, 
founded in 1197, in the parish of St. Botolph (Cunningham's Handbook of 
London, p. 463). 



cxliv Life of Father yohn Gerard. 

have found plenty; they would have found him, his books, 
altar furniture, and other things of a similar nature. Father 
Garnett, then, escaped this time by John's good help, as I had 
done previously. 

"After his escape John came to me, but though I desired 
much to keep him, it was out of the question, for he was now so 
marked a man that his presence would have been a continual 
danger for me and all my friends. For I was wont in the 
country to go openly to the houses of Catholic gentlemen, and 
it might well happen that John might come across persons that 
knew him, and would know me through him. Whereas but very 
few of the enemy knew me, for I was always detained in close 
custody, and none but Catholics saw me in prison, nay, such 
Catholics only as I knew to be specially trustworthy. I had, 
indeed, been examined publicly in London several times, but the 
persons concerned in the examinations very seldom left town, 
and if they had done so I should have been warned of it instantly, 
and should have taken good care never to trust myself in their 
neighbourhood. So I put John with Father Garnett, to stay in 
quiet hiding for a time ; and when opportunity offered sent him 
over to Father Persons, that he might obtain, what he had long 
hoped for, admission to the Society. He was admitted at Rome, 1 
and lived there for six or seven years as a Lay-brother, much 
esteemed, I believe, by everybody. I can on my part testify 
about him to the greater glory of God, and that the more 
allowably because I believe he has died in England before this 
present writing, whither he returned with a consumption on him :. 
I can, I say, testify that for nearly six years that he was with me 
in England, and had his hands full of business for me, though he 
had to do with all sorts of men in all sorts of places (for while 
I was engaged upstairs with the gentry and nobility, he was 
associating downstairs with the servants, often very indifferent 
characters), yet the whole of this time he so guarded his heart 
and his soul that I never found him to have been even in danger 
of mortal sin. Truly his was an innocent soul, and endowed 
with great prudence and cleverness. 

1 John Lilly entered the Society Feb. 2, 1602, set. 37 (Bartoli, Light! terra,, 
p. 429). 



Life of Father yohn Gerard. cxlv 

" But now that I have brought the history of John Lilly to its 
close, it is time to return to myself, who, having just escaped one 
danger, had like to have fallen into a second and still greater one, 
had not God again interposed His hand." 



XXIII. 

"I mentioned just now that one of my hostess' servants told a 
friend of his, but an enemy of ours, that I habitually resided at 
his mistress' house, and that at that particular time I was at such 
a house in London. How this house was searched, and how 
they seized my companion and my manuscripts, but missed me, I 
have related. The Council, therefore, now knowing my residence 
in the country, issued a commission to some Justices of the 
Peace in that county to search this lady's house for a Priest. It 
had, in fact, began to be talked of in the county that she had 
taken this grand house in order that she might harbour Priests 
there in larger numbers and with greater freedom, because it was 
more private ; and in this people were not far wrong. 

" Now at this time, that is, soon after my return from London, 
we had driven over to the new house to make arrangements for 
our removal thither, and with the special object of determining 
where to construct hiding-places. To this end we had Little 
John with us, whom I have before mentioned as very clever at 
constructing these places, and whom Father Garnett had lent to 
us for a time for this purpose. Having made all the necessary 
arrangements we left Little John behind, and Hugh Sheldon also 
to help him, who is now at Rome with Father Persons in the 
room of John Lilly. These two, whom we had always found 
most faithful, were to construct the hiding-places, and to be the 
only ones beside ourselves to know anything about them. The 
rest of us, however, returned the same day to our hostess' own 
house, and by the advice of one of the servants, God so disposing 
it, we came back a different way, as being easier for the carriage. 
Had we returned by the way we went, the searchers would have 
come early to the house where we were, and most probably 
catching us entirely unprepared, would have found what they 
came to seek. The fact was that the road by which we went to 



cxlvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

the new house ran through a town, where some of the enemy 
were on the watch and had seen us pass, but not seeing us 
return they concluded that we were spending the night at 
the new house, and went there the first thing in the morning 
to search. 

" But the house was so large that, although they had a 
numerous body of followers, they were not able to surround it 
entirely, nor to watch all the outlets so narrowly, but what Little 
John managed to make off safely. Hugh Sheldon they caught, 
but could get nothing out of him, so they sent him afterwards to 
prison at Wisbech, and from thence later to some other prison 
in company with many Priests, and at last in the same good 
company into exile. 

"When, however, the Justices found that they were wrong, 
and that the lady had returned home the previous day, they 
retraced their steps and came as fast as their horses could carry 
them to the old house. They arrived at our dinner-hour, and 
being admitted by the carelessness of the porter, got into the hall 
before we had any warning. Now as the lady of the house was 
a little indisposed that morning, we were going to take our dinner 
in my room, that is, Father Percy, myself, and Master Roger 
Lee, who had come down from London to finish his retreat which 
had been so rudely interrupted before. So when I heard who 
had come, that they were in the great hall, and that his lordship 
himself, who was indeed but a boy at that time, could not prevent 
them from intruding into his room, though he was also unwell, I 
made a pretty shrewd guess what they had come about, and 
snatching up such things as wanted hiding I made the best of 
my way to the hiding-place, together with Father Percy and 
Master Roger Lee. For it would not do for this latter to have 
been found here, especially as he had already been found in the 
house in London where I was known to have been, and would 
therefore have given good reason to think that I was here also. 
But we had to pass by the door of the room in which the enemy 
were as yet waiting, and exclaiming that they would wait no 
longer. Nay, one of the pursuivants opened the door and 
looked out ; and some of the servants said that he must have 
-seen me as I passed. But God certainly interposed, for it was 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxlvii 

surely not to be expected from natural causes that men who had 
come eager to search the house at once, and were loudly- 
declaring they would do so, should stay in a room where they 
were not locked in, just as long as was necessary for us to hide 
ourselves, and then come forth as if they had been let loose, 
intrude upon the lady of the house, and course through all the 
rooms like bloodhounds after their prey. I cannot but think 
that this was the finger of God, Who would not that the good 
intentions of this lady should be so soon frustrated, but rather 
wished by so evident a display of His providence to confirm 
her in her determinations, and preserve her for many more 
good works. 

"The authorities searched the house thoroughly the whole day, 
but found nothing. At last they retired disappointed, and wrote 
to the Council what they had done. We soon discovered who 
had done the mischief (for he had not done it secretly) and 
discharged him, but without unkindness. I gave out also that I 
should quit the place altogether, and for a time we practised 
particular caution in all points. 

" In consequence of this mishap it became impossible for us 
to remove to the new house. For those same Justices, who were 
pestilent heretics, and several others in the same county, Puritans, 
declared they would never suffer her ladyship to live at peace if 
she came there, as her only object was to harbour Priests. Being 
deterred, therefore, from that place, but not from her design, she 
set about fitting up her own present residence for that same 
purpose, and built us separate quarters close to the old chapel, 
which had been erected anciently by former Barons of the family 
to hear Mass in when the weather might make it unpleasant to go 
to the parish church. Here, then, she built a little wing of three 
stories for Father Percy and me. The place was exceedingly 
convenient, and so free from observation that from our rooms we 
could step out into the private garden, and thence through 
spacious walks into the fields, where we could mount our horses 
and ride whither we would. 

" As we lived here safely and quietly, I frequently left Father 
Percy at home, and made excursions to see if I could establish 
similar centres of operation among other families; and in this 



clxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

Father Roger Lee (to give him his present title) helped me not a 
little. He first took me to the house of a relation of his, who 
lived in princely splendour, and whose father was one of the 
Queen's Council. This young nobleman was a schismatic, that is, 
a Catholic by conviction, but conforming externally to the State 
religion ; and there seemed no hope of getting him any further, 
for he contented himself with velleities, and was fearful of 
offending his father. His wife, however, who was a heretic, had 
begun to listen with interest to Catholic doctrine, so that there 
was hope she might in time be brought into the Church. Their 
house was full m of heretic servants, and there was a constant 
coming and going of heretic gentry either on business or on visit ; 
it was therefore imperatively necessary that, as I could only go 
there publicly, I should well conceal my purpose. 

" We paid a visit, then, to this house, and were made very 
welcome, Master Lee for his own sake, as being much beloved, 
and I for his. On the first day I looked in vain for an oppor- 
tunity of a conversation with the lady of the house, for there was 
always some one by. We were obliged to play at cards to pass 
the time, as those are wont to do who know not the eternal value 
of time, or at least care not for it. On the next day, however, as 
the lady of the house stept aside once to the window to set her 
watch, I joined her there, and after talking a little about the 
watch, passed on to matters which I had more in view, saying I 
wished we took as much pains to set our souls in order as we did 
our watches. She looked up at me in pure surprise to hear such 
things from my lips; and as I saw I might never get a better 
opportunity than the present, I began to open a little further, and 
told her that I had come there with Master Lee specially for her 
sake, hearing from him that she took interest in matters of 
religion, and that I was ready to explain the Catholic doctrine to 
her, and satisfy all the doubts she could possibly have; moreover, 
that I could point out the way to a height of virtue which she 
had hitherto never dreamt of, for that in heresy she could neither 
find that way, nor any who made account of it. She was struck 
with what I said, and promised to find some opportunity for 
further conversation, when we might speak more fully on the 
matter. I gave her this hint of a higher virtue, because she had 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxlix 

been represented to me, as she really was, as a lady of most 
earnest and conscientious character. 

" She found the time according to her promise ; all her 
difficulties were removed, and she became a Catholic. After recon- 
ciling her to the Church, I made some other converts in the same 
house ; then I recommended her a Catholic maid, and suggested 
that she should keep a Priest always in the house, to which she 
gladly assented. This was a thing that might easily be managed, 
not indeed as it was in our house, where the whole household 
was Catholic, and knew us to be Priests ; but a Priest could well 
live in the upper part of the house, from which all heretics might 
be kept away, especially now that some of the servants were 
Catholics. And, indeed, the accommodation was such that I do 
not know any place in England where a Priest who wished to be 
private could live more conveniently. For he could have, in 
the first place, a fine room to himself, opening on a spacious 
corridor of some eighty paces, which looked on a garden, the 
laying out of which had cost, as I was told, ten thousand florins 
[1,000/.] ; in this corridor, moreover, was a separate room, which 
would serve excellently as a chapel, and another for his meals, 
with fire-places and every convenience. It was a pity, I said, 
that such a place had not a resident Priest, where the mistress 
was a devout Catholic, and the master no enemy to religion. 
Her husband, indeed, made no difficulty of receiving Priests; 
nay, he sometimes came to hear me preach, and at last went so 
far as to be fond of dressing the altar with his own hands, and of 
saying the breviary : yet with all this he still remains outside the 
ark, liable to be swept off by the waters of the deluge when they 
break forth, for he presumes too much on an opportunity of 
doing penance before death. 

" The lady then readily fell in with my suggestion of having 
a Priest in her house ; so I brought thither Father Antony 
Hoskins, a man of great ability, who had lately come over from 
Spain, where he had spent ten years in the Society with remark- 
able success in his studies. Being placed there, he did a great 
deal of good on all sides, and remained with them almost up to 
the present time, when at length he has been removed and put to 
greater things. He did not, however, stay constantly at home, for 



cl Life of Father John Gerard. 

he is a man whom, when once known, many would wish to 
confer with, so that he was forced to go about at times. At 
present there is another Father in the house, a most devoted 
man. But the lady directs herself chiefly by Father Percy, who 
this very week addressed me a letter in the following words : — 
' Such a one ' (meaning this lady of whom I have been speaking) 
1 is going on very well. She has put her whole house under the 
protection of our Blessed Lady of Loretto, and offers her heart 
to her, to serve her and her Son for ever, with all that she 
possesses; and in token of this she has had made a beautiful 
heart of gold, which she wishes to send to Loretto by the first 
opportunity. We desire, therefore, to hear from you by whom she 
can send this offering.' Thus he writes about this lady. In this 
way then, by the grace of God, was this house, with its domestic 
church, established and confirmed in the Faith. 

"Master Roger also introduced me to some neighbours of 
his; among others to a gentleman of the Queen's Court," 1 Sir 
Everard Digby, "who had inherited a large estate, and had 
married a lady who was sole heiress to all her father's property," 
Mary Mulshaw, of Gothurst, in Buckinghamshire. " Not one of 
this family was a Catholic, nor even inclined to the Catholic faith. 
The wife's father, who was the head of the house, was a thorough 
heretic, and had his thoughts entirely occupied in hoarding 
money for his daughter, and increasing her revenues. His son-in- 
law devoted himself wholly to juvenile sports. When in London, 
he attended at Court, being one of the Queen's gentlemen 
pensioners ; but in the country he spent almost his whole time in 
hunting and hawking. Hence it happened that Master Roger 
Lee, who was a neighbour of his, and fond of similar sports, 
often joined him on such occasions, and brought his falcons to 
hawk in company. We two, therefore, took advantage of this 
acquaintanceship, and I was introduced to this gentleman's house 
as a friend and intimate of Master Lee's. We made frequent 
visits there, and took every opportunity of speaking of Catholic 
doctrine and practice. I took care, however, that Master Lee 
should always speak more frequently and more earnestly than I, 

1 In the margin of the MS. is written "Digbseus," in the same hand as the 
text. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cli 

that no suspicion might arise about my real character. Indeed, so 
far was this gentleman from having the least suspicion about me, 
that he seriously asked Master Lee whether he thought I was a 
good match for his sister, whom he wished to see married well, 
and to a Catholic, for he looked on Catholics as good and 
honourable men. 

"We had, therefore, as I said, frequent converse on matters of 
salvation ; and the wife was the first to listen with any fruit, at 
a time when she was living in the country but her husband was 
up in town. Her parents were now dead, and she was mistress 
of the house, so that we were able to deal more directly with her. 
At last she came to the point of wishing to be a Catholic, and 
told me she should be glad to speak with a Priest. I could 
scarce forbear a smile at this. I answered, however, that the 
thing might be managed, and that I would speak with Master 
Lee on the subject. ' In the meantime,' I added, ' I can teach 
you the way to examine your conscience, as I myself was 
taught to do it by an experienced Priest' So I told Master 
Roger that as she was now determined and prepared, he might 
inform her of my being a Priest. This he did, but she for 
some time refused to believe it, saying, ' How is it possible 
he can be a Priest? Has he not lived among us rather as a 
courtier? Has he not played at cards with my husband, and 
played well too, which is impossible for those not accustomed 
to the game? Has he not gone out hunting with my husband, 
and frequently in my hearing spoken of the hunt and of the 
haw T ks in proper terms, without tripping, which no one could but 
one who has been trained to it?' 

" Many other things she adduced to show I could not be a 
Priest : to all of which Master Lee replied, ' It is true that he 
said and did what you say; and unless he had done so, how 
could he have gained entrance here, and conversed with you, and 
by his conversation brought you to the Faith ? For if he had 
presented himself as a Priest (which he would much prefer, were 
it feasible), how would your father, who was then living, have 
allowed his introduction, or you yourselves ? ' 

"She could not but admit the truth of this ; yet she found it 
hard to believe that it was so. ' I pray you,' she said, ' not to be 



clii Life of Father John Gerard. 

angry with me, if I ask further whether any other Catholic knows 
him to be a Priest but you. Does so-and-so know him ?' 

" 'Yes,' he answered, 'and goes to confession to him.' 

"Then she mentioned other names, and at last that of my 
hostess, who lived in the neighbourhood, but ten miles ofT. 

" ' Does she, too, know him as a Priest, and deal with him 
as such?' 

" ' Why,' said Master Lee, ' she not only knows him as a 
Priest, but has given herself, and all her household, and all that 
she has, to be directed by him, and takes no other guide but 
him.' 

* Then at length she confessed herself satisfied. 

" ' You will find him, however,' added Master Lee, ' quite a 
different man when he has put off his present character.' 

" This she acknowledged the next day, when she saw me in 
my soutane and other priestly garments, such as she had never 
before seen. She made a most careful confession, and came to 
have so great an opinion of my poor powers, that she gave herself 
entirely to my direction, meditated great things, which, indeed, 
she carried out, and carries out still. 

" When this matter was thus happily terminated, we all three 
consulted together, how we could induce her husband to enter 
also into St. Peter's net. Now, it so happened that he had fallen 
sick in London, and his wife on hearing it determined to go and 
nurse him. We, however, went up before her, and, travelling 
more expeditiously, had time to deal with him before she came. 
I spoke to him of the uncertainty of life, and the certainty of 
misery, not only in this life, but especially in the next, unless 
we provided against it : and I showed him that we have here 
no abiding city, but must look for one to come. As affliction 
oftentimes brings sense, so it happened in his case ; for we 
found but little difficulty in gaining his goodwill. And as he 
was a man of solid sense and excellent heart, he laid a firm 
foundation from the beginning. He prepared himself well for 
confession, after being taught the way ; and when he learnt that I 
was a Priest, he felt no such difficulty in believing as his wife had 
done, because he had known similar cases ; but he rather rejoiced 
at having found a confessor who had experience among persons 



Life of Father John Gerard. cliii 

■of his rank of life, and with whom he could deal at all times 
without danger of its being known that he was dealing with a 
Priest After his reconciliation, he began on his part to be 
anxious about his wife, and wished to consult with us how best 
to bring her to the Catholic religion. We both smiled at this, 
but said nothing at that time, determining to wait till his wife 
came up to town, that we might witness how each loving soul 
would strive to win the other. 

" Certainly they were a favoured pair. Both gave themselves 
wholly to God's service, and the husband afterwards sacrificed all 
his property, his liberty, nay, even his life, for God's Church, as I 
shall relate hereafter. For this was that Sir Everard Digby, Knight, 
of whom later on I should have had to say many things, if so 
much had not been already written and published about him and 
his companions. But never in any of these writings has justice 
been done to the sincerity of his intention, nor the circumstances 
properly set forth which would put his conduct in its true light. 

" After this they both came to see me at my residence in the 
country. But while there he was again taken ill, and that so 
violently and dangerously, that all the Oxford doctors despaired 
of his life. As, therefore, in all likelihood he had not long to 
live, he began to prepare himself earnestly for a good death, and 
his wife to think of a more perfect way of life. For some days 
she gave herself to learn the method of meditation, and to find 
out God's will with regard to her future life, how she might best 
direct it to His glory. To be brief, she came to this determina- 
tion, that if her husband should die, she would devote herself 
entirely to good works, observe perpetual chastity and exact 
obedience ; that as for her property, which would be very exten- 
sive as they were without children, she would spend it all in pious 
uses according to my direction ; she would herself live where and 
in what style I judged best for the advancement of God's honour 
and the good of her own soul ; and she added that fcer desire was 
to wear poor clothing wherever she might be, and observe all 
the rules of poverty. All this was to be while the persecution 
might last in England. If, however, it should cease, and England 
should become Catholic, then she would give her house (a very 
large and fine one), and all the property her father left her, for 
k 



cliv Life of Father John Gerard. 

the foundation of a College of the Society : and this would have 
been amply sufficient for a first-rate foundation. 

" This was her resolution, but God had otherwise arranged,, 
and for that time happily. For when all the Oxford doctors gave 
up Sir Everard's case as hopeless, I, who loved him much, did 
not lose heart, but without his knowledge I sent for a certain 
Cambridge doctor, a Catholic, and a man of much learning and 
experience, whom I had known to cure cases abandoned by other 
physicians. On his arrival at our house, where Sir Everard Digby 
then was with his wife, after telling him all about the patient, I 
got him to examine the sick man himself, and learn from him all 
about his habit of body and general constitution. Then I asked 
him if he thought there was any hope. He answered. ' If Sir 
Everard will venture to put himself entirely in my hands, I have 
good hopes, with the help of God, of bringing him round.' 

" The patient on hearing this said to me, ' Since this doctor is 
known to your Reverence, and is chosen by you, I give myself 
willingly into his hands.' 

" By this doctor, then, he was cured beyond all expectation, 
and so completely restored to perfect health that there was not a 
more robust or stalwart man in a thousand. He was a most 
devoted friend to me, just as if he had been my twin-brother. 
And this name of brother we always used in writing to each other. 
How greatly he was attached me, may be seen from the following 
incident. Once when I had gone to a certain house to assist a 
soul in agony, he got to learn that I was in great danger there : 
upon this he at first expressed a terrible distress, and then imme- 
diately said to his wife that if I should be taken, he was resolved 
to watch the roads by which I should be carried prisoner to 
London, and take with him a sufficient number of friends and 
servants to rescue me by force from those who had me in custody:, 
and if he should miss me on the road, he would accomplish my 
release one way or another, even though he should spend his 
whole fortune in the venture. Such, then, was his attachment to 
me at that time, and this he retained always in the same — nay, 
rather in an increased — degree to the end of his life ; as he 
showed by the way he spoke of me when pleading for his life 
before the public court. At this time, however, as I said, he was 



Life of Father John Gerard. civ 

restored to health: and he and his wife got together a little 
domestic church after the pattern of that in our own house, and 
built a chapel with a sacristy, furnishing it with costly and 
beautiful vestments, and obtained a Priest of the Society for their 
chaplain, who remained with them to Sir Everard's death. 

"What was done by this family was done by others also. For 
many of the Catholic gentry coming to our house, and seeing the 
arrangements and manner of life, followed the example them- 
selves, establishing a sort of congregation in each of their houses, 
providing handsome altar furniture, making convenient arrange- 
ments for the residence of Priests, and showing especial respect 
and reverence to them. 

"Among those who came to this determination was a certain 
lady resident near Oxford, whose husband was indeed a Catholic, 
but overmuch devoted to worldly pursuits. She, however, gave 
herself to be directed by me as far as she could, having such a 
husband. I often visited them, and was always welcomed by 
both; and there I established one of our Fathers, Edward 
Walpole, whom I mentioned in an early part of this narrative as 
having left a large patrimony for the sake of following Christ our 
Lord, in the first year of my residence in England. 

" There was another lady also who had a similar wish : she 
was a relative of my hostess, and she also resided in the county 
of Oxford. Her husband was a Knight of very large property, 
who hoped to be created a Baron, and still hopes for it. This 
lady came on a visit to our house, and wished to learn the way 
of meditating, which I taught her; but as her husband was a 
heretic, it was impossible for her to have a Priest in her house, 
as she greatly wished. She took, however, the resolution of 
supporting a Priest, who should come to her at convenient times. 
She resolved, also, to make a meditation every day, and to give 
one or two hours daily to spiritual reading, when she had no 
guests in the house. On her coming to me every six months, I 
found that she had never omitted her meditation, nor her daily 
examination of conscience, except on one occasion when her 
husband insisted on her staying with the guests. Yet she had a 
large and busy household to superintend, and a continual coming 
and going of guests. 



clvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

" It happened on one occasion when I was in this lady's 
house, and was sitting with her after dinner, the servants having 
gone down to get their own dinner, that suddenly a guest was 
shown up who had just arrived. This was an Oxford Doctor 
of Divinity, a heretic of some note, and a persecutor of Catholics ; 
his name was Dr. Abbot. 1 He had just before this published 
a book against Father Southwell, who had been executed, and 
Father Gerard, who had escaped from the Tower, because these 
two had defended the doctrine of equivocation, which he chose 
to impugn. After this publication, the good man had been made 
Dean of Winchester, a post which brought him in a yearly income 
of eight thousand florins [800/.]. This man, then, as I said, 
was shown up, and entered the dining-room, dressed in a sort 
of silk soutane coming down to his knees, as is the manner of 
their chief ministers. We were in appearance sitting at cards, 
though when the servants had all left the room, we had laid the 
cards down to attend to better things. Hearing, however, this 
gentleman announced, we resumed our game, so that he found 
us playing, with a good sum of money on the table. 

" I may here mention that when I played thus with Catholics, 
with the view of maintaining among a mixed company the 
character in which I appeared, I always agreed that each one 
should have his money back afterwards, but should say an Ave 
Maria for each piece that was returned to him. It was on these 
terms that I frequently played with my brother Digby and other 
Catholics, where it appeared necessary, so that the by-standers 
thought we were playing for money, and were in hot earnest 
over it. 

" So also this minister never conceived the slightest suspicion 
of me, but after the first courtesies began to talk at a pretty pace : 
for this is the only thing those chattering ministers can do, who 
possess no solid knowledge, but by the persuasive words of 

1 George Abbot was appointed Dean of Winton in 1559, in 1609 Bishop 
of Lichfield and Coventry, from which in about a month he was translated to 
London, and thence in 161 1 to Canterbury. In July, 1621, as he was shooting 
at a deer with a cross-bow, he shot the keeper, for which King James gave 
him a dispensation. In 1627 he was sequestered from his office, and his 
metropolitan jurisdiction put into commission, but about a year after he was 
restored. He died at Croydon, Aug. 4, 1633, ret. 71. 



Life of Father John Gerard. clvii 

human wisdom lead souls astray, and subvert houses, teaching 
things that are not convenient. So he, after much frivolous talk, 
began to tell us the latest news from London; how a certain 
Puritan had thrown himself down from the steeple of a church, 
having left it in writing that he knew himself to be secure of 
his eternal salvation. About this writing, however, the learned 
Doctor said nothing, but I had heard the particulars myself from 
another quarter. 

" ' Wretched man ! ' said I ; ' what could induce him thus to 
destroy body and soul by one and the same act ! ' 

" ' Sir,' said the Doctor, learnedly enough and magisterially, 
'we must not judge any man.' 

" ' True,' I replied ; ' it is just possible that, as he was falling, 
he repented of his sin : inter pontem et fontem, as they say. But 
this is extremely improbable ; since the last act of the man of 
which we have any means of judging was a mortal sin and 
deserving of damnation.' 

" ' But,' said the Doctor, ' we cannot know whether this was 
such a sin.' 

"'Nay,' I replied, 'this is not left to our judgment; it is 
God's own verdict, when He forbids us under pain of hell to 
kill any one : a prohibition which applies especially to the killing 
of ourselves, for charity begins from oneself.' 

" The good Doctor being here caught, said no more on this 
point, but turned the subject, and said, smiling, 'Gentlemen 
must not dispute on theological matters.' 

"'True,' said I, 'we do not make profession of knowing 
theology ; but at least we ought to know the law of God, though 
our profession is to play at cards.' 

"The lady with whom I was playing, hearing him speak to 
me in this way, could scarce keep her countenance, thinking 
within herself what he would have said if he had known who 
it was he was answering. The Doctor, however, did not stay 
much longer. Whether he departed sooner than he at first 
intended, I know not; but I know that we much preferred his 
room to his company." 



clviii Life of Father John Gerard. 



XXIV. 

" I must now return to London, and relate what happened after 
John Lilly was taken, and the gentleman imprisoned with whom 
I rented my London house. This house being now closed to 
me, I sought out another, but on a different plan. I did not 
now join in partnership with any one, because I was unwilling 
to be in the house of one known to be a Catholic. I managed 
that this new house should be hired by a nephew of Master 
Roger Lee, whom with his wife I had reconciled to the Catholic 
Church ; and, as he was not known to be a Catholic, the house 
was entirely free from all suspicion. I had the use of this house 
for three years, and during that time it was not once searched ; 
nor even before the Queen's death, though there were many 
general searches made, and the prisons were choked with 
Catholics, did they ever come to this house. 

" I had a man to keep the house who was a schismatic, but 
otherwise an honest and upright person. When I was in resi- 
dence, this man provided me with necessaries ; and when I was 
away, he managed any business for me according to my written 
directions. In all appearance he was the servant of the gentle- 
man who owned the house, and so he was esteemed and called 
by the neighbours; and since, as a schismatic, he frequented 
their churches, they entertained no suspicion of him, nor of the 
house. 

"For myself, when I came to town, I always entered the 
house after dark, and in summer time scarce ever went out while 
I remained there. But my friends would come to visit me by 
ones and twos on different days, that no special attention might 
be drawn to the house from the number of visitors. Nor did 
they ever bring any servants with them, though some were of 
very high rank, and usually went about with a large number of 
attendants. By these means I provided better for them and for 
myself, and was able to continue longer in this way of life." . . . 

"When I was in London I did not allow every one to come 
to my house whose desire to converse with me I was willing to 
gratify; but I would sometimes, especially after dark in winter 
time, go myself to their houses. On one occasion I was asked 



Life of Father John Gerard. clix 

by a certain lady to her house to hear the confession of a young 
nobleman attached to the Court, who was a dear friend of her 
husband's. Her husband was also a Catholic and well known 
to me : though quite a young man, he had been one of the 
principal captains in the Irish war. And the young nobleman 
just mentioned was a Baron, and son to an Irish Earl, and at this 
present writing he has himself succeeded to the earldom on his 
father's death. 1 This young Baron, then," Lord Dunkellin, 
"wished to make his confession to me. As I had not known 
him before, I put a few questions to him, according to my 
wont, beforehand. I asked him, therefore, if he was prepared 
at once. He answered that he was. I then asked how often in 
the year he was accustomed to go to the Sacraments. 'Twice 
or thrice in the year,' he said. 

" ' It would be better,' said I, ' to come more frequently, and 
then less preparation would be necessary. As it is, I should 
advise you to take a few days for the exact and diligent exami- 
nation of your conscience, according to the method that I will 
show you ; then you will come with greater fruit, and with greater 
satisfaction to yourself and to me. And for the future I would 
recommend a more frequent use of the holy Sacraments.' And I 
brought some reasons for my advice. 

" He listened to me very patiently, and when I had finished 
he replied, ' I will do in future what you recommend, and I 
would willingly follow your counsel at present, if it were possible ; 
it is, however, impossible to put off my present confession.' 

" ' Why is it impossible ? ' I asked. 

" ' Because,' he replied, 'to-morrow I shall be in circumstances 
of danger, and I desire to prepare myself by confession to-day.' 

" ' What danger is this,' I asked again, ' to which you will be 
exposed ? ' 

'"There is a gentleman at Court,' he said, 'who has 
grievously insulted me, so that I was compelled in defence of 

1 Richard de Burgh, commonly called Richard of Kinsale, from his conduct 
at that place, Baron of Dunkellin, succeeded his father as fourth Earl of 
Clanricarde, May 20, 1601. He was subsequently made Earl of St. Albans, 
and died Nov. 12, 1635. He married Frances, daughter and heiress of Sir 
Francis Walsyngham, Knight, widow of Robert second Earl of Essex. She 
■died in 1632. Thus Walsyngham's only child became a Catholic. 



clx Life of Father John Gerard. 

my honour to challenge him to single combat, and we meet 
to-morrow at an appointed spot at some distance from town.' 

" ' My lord,' I exclaimed, ' to approach the Sacrament in such 
a frame of mind is not to prepare yourself for danger, nor to 
cleanse your soul (though I doubt not it was with a good 
intention you proposed it), but rather to sully your soul more 
than ever, to affront God still further, and render Him still more 
your enemy. For to come to confession with a determination of 
taking vengeance is to put an obstacle to the grace of the Sacra- 
ment ; and, moreover, this particular action on which you are 
resolved is not only a sin, but is visited with excommunication. 
I urge you, therefore, to give up this intention ; you will be able 
to preserve your honour by some other way. Nay, the honour 
you think to preserve by this is not real honour, but merely the 
estimation of bad men founded on bad principles : men who 
exalt their own worldly ideas above the law and honour of God.' 

" ' It is impossible to withdraw now,' he said, ' for the thing 
is known, to many, and has been taken even to the Queen, who 
has expressly forbidden us to pursue the matter any further.' 

" ' Well then,' said I, ' you have the best possible reason for 
laying aside the quarrel, namely, obedience to the Queen's 
behest. Moreover, you must remember that you are known 
for the intimate friend of the Earl of Essex, and that, if you 
overcome your adversary, the Queen (if it be only to spite the 
Earl) will certainly visit you with some heavy punishment for 
having disregarded her commands ; but if you should kill him, 
unquestionably she will take your life. On the other hand, if 
you should be vanquished, what becomes of the honour you wish 
to defend, and if you should be slain in that state of soul in 
which you go to the fight, you go straight to eternal fire and 
everlasting shame, for while you are defending your body from 
your adversary's sword, you forget to parry the mortal thrust that 
the devil is aiming at your soul.' 

" But spite of all I could say, the fear of the world, which is 
fatally powerful with men of this rank, prevailed, and his reply 
was, 'I implore you, Father, to pray for me, and to hear my 
confession if you possibly can.' 

" ' Certainly I cannot hear you,' I said, ' for that honour 



Life of Father John Gerard, clxi 

which you worship is not necessary to you, in the sense in 
which it is to those who are obliged to take their part in a war. 
Besides, you are the challenger, and you took this unlawful 
course when it was possible for you to follow some other method 
of vindicating yourself, and so whatever necessity there is for 
pursuing the matter has been created by yourself. But this is 
what I will do ; I will give you from my reliquary a particle of 
the Holy Cross, inclosed with an Agnus Dei, and you shall wear 
it upon you. Perhaps God may have mercy upon you for the 
sake of this, and afford you time for penance. Understand, 
however, I do not give it you in order to encourage you in your 
bad purpose, but that you may wear it with all reverence and 
respect, so that, should you come into danger (which certainly I 
do not desire), God may be moved to preserve your life, in the 
consideration of the good will you have of honouring His Cross.' 

" He took my gift very thankfully and reverentially, and had 
it sewed inside his shirt over his heart, for it was arranged that 
they should fight in their shirts without cuirass. It happened, 
God so allowing it, that his adversary made a lunge at his heart 
and pierced his shirt, but did not touch his skin. He on his side 
wounded and prostrated his enemy, then gave him his life and 
came off victorious. He then came to me in high spirits, and 
told me how he had been preserved by the power of the Holy 
Cross ; then he thanked me very earnestly, and promised to be 
more on his guard in future. The Queen soon after took a fancy 
to this young nobleman, and kept him close to her at Court for a 
time. But tiring soon of this sort of life, at his father's death he 
married the widow of the Earl of Essex. She was a heretic when 
he married her, but he soon made her a Catholic, and they both 
live now as Catholics in Ireland, as I hear. 

"That Knight, moreover, who introduced this young Baron 
to me, followed my counsel at that time, and after devoting 
several days to a diligent examination of conscience, made a 
general confession of his whole life, with a view of reforming it 
for the future. A little later he was desirous of returning to the 
Irish wars, but as I was in doubt whether this was lawful in 
conscience, he promised me to resign his appointment and 
return to England, if the Priests there, to whom I referred him 



-clxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

as living on the spot, and therefore having a closer knowledge of 
the circumstances, decided that it was unlawful. Soon after his 
arrival in Ireland, in a certain fight, while he was bravely 
mounting a wall and animating his men to follow, he was 
struck dead by a musket-ball. He had, however, before the 
fight, carefully written me a letter and sent it off, informing me 
that he had consulted the Priests in the country, and had 
received this answer, that it was lawful to fight against the 
Catholic party, because it was not clear to all why they had 
taken up arms. 

" After his death a remarkable incident occurred, which I will 
relate. His wife, pious soul, who never had the least idea of her 
husband's death, about that time heard every night some one 
knocking at her chamber door, and that so loudly as to wake her. 
Her maids heard it too, but on opening the door there was no 
one to be seen. She therefore got a Priest to stay with her and 
her maids till the usual time of the knocking, and when the same 
noise and knocking at the door were heard, the Priest himself 
went to the door, but found no one. This knocking went on till 
such time as news of her husband's death reached her, as if it had 
been a warning from his Angel to pray for his soul." . . . 

" Having held this house for three years, I let it to a Catholic 
friend, and took another house near the principal street in 
London, called the Strand. Since most of my friends lived in 
that street, they were thus able to visit me more easily, and I 
them. After my removal I discovered how entirely free from 
suspicion was the house which I had left, and in which I had 
dwelt for three years; for the servant who kept my house sent 
for a gardener with whom he had been acquainted in the other 
house (for the garden of the new house needed to be put in 
order), and the gardener remarked to him, 'Some Papists have 
come to live in your old house : ' as though they who had 
previously dwelt there had been good Protestants. 

" This new house was very suitable and convenient, and had 
private entrances on both sides, and I had contrived in it some 
most excellent hiding-places; and there I should long have 
remained, free from all peril or even suspicion, if some friends of 
mine, while I was absent from London, had not availed them- 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxiii 

selves of the house rather rashly. It remained, however, in the 
same state up to the time of the great and terrible disturbance of 
the Powder Plot, as I shall hereafter shortly mention. 

" Meantime my friends brought me another who was heir to a 
barony, and is himself now a peer, and by God's grace I 
persuaded him to take on his shoulders the yoke of the law of 
Christ and of the Catholic faith, and made him a member of the 
Church. Another whom I had previously known in the world, 
and had seen to be wholly devoted to every kind of vanity, fell 
sick. He had abounded with riches and pleasures, and passed 
his days in jollity, destined, however, to fall from thence in a 
moment, had not God patiently waited, and in a suitable time led 
him to penance. He then was lying sick of a grievous illness, 
but yet had not begun to think of death. I heard that he was 
sick, and obtained an entry into his chamber at eleven o'clock at 
night, after the departure of his friends. He recognized me, and 
was pleased at my visit. I explained why I had come, and 
warned him to think seriously of the state of his soul, and, 
instead of a Judge, render God a Friend and most loving Father, 
however much he might have wasted all his substance. So then 
weakness of body opened the ears of his heart, and in an 
acceptable time God heard us, and in the day of salvation helped 
us ; insomuch that he offered himself as at once ready to make 
his confession. I, however, said I would return on the following 
night, and advised him meantime to procure that there should be 
read to him, by a friend whom I named, Father Lewis of Grenada's 
Explanation of the Commandments: that after each Commandment 
he should occupy some little time in reflection, and call to mind 
how, and how often, he had offended against that Commandment; 
that he should then make an act of sorrow regarding each, and so 
go on to the next. He promised that he would do so, and I 
pr omised that I would return on the following night. This I did, 
and heard his confession ; I gave him all the assistance I could, 
for the time had been short, especially for a sick man, to prepare 
for such a confession, but he dared no longer defer it, although 
he still seemed tolerably strong. I advised him to use the utmost 
care in discharging all his debts, which were great, through the 
extravagant expenditure in which he had indulged; I also 



clxiv Life of Father John Gerard, 

exhorted him to redeem his sins by alms. He did both by the 
will he made the following day, and bequeathed a large sum for 
pious uses, which, as I heard, was honestly paid. 

" I also bade him prepare for the Holy Communion and 
Extreme Unction against the following night, and to have some 
pious book read to him meantime. He not only did what I 
advised, but exhorted all that came to visit him on the following 
day, to repent at once of their former life, and not defer their 
amendment as he had done: 'Do not,' he said, 'look for the 
mercy which I have found, for this is to be presumptuous and 
to irritate God ; for I have deserved hell a thousand times on this 
account' And much more to the same effect did he speak, with 
so much earnestness and freedom, that all marvelled at so sudden 
a change. They asked him to hide the cross which he had 
hanging from his neck (for I had lent him my own cross full of 
relics to kiss, and exercise acts of reverence and love) ; but he 
answered, ' Hide it ! Nay, I would not hide it, even if the most 
bitter heretics were here. Too long have I refrained from 
profession of the Catholic faith, and now, if God gave me life, I 
would publicly profess myself a Catholic : ' so that all marvelled 
and were much edified and moved at his words. He spoke thus 
to all the peers and great men that visited him. His conversion 
thus became publicly known, and many of the courtiers afterwards 
spoke of it. On the third night of my visiting him according to 
my promise, he again made his confession with great expressions 
of sorrow, and begged for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, and 
when he received it, himself arranged for me more conveniently 
to reach the different parts of his body, just as though he had 
been a Catholic many years. Seeing him in such good disposition, 
I asked him whether he did not put all his trust in the merits of 
Christ and in the mercy of God. 'Surely ! ' said he ; 'did I not 
do so, and did not that mercy give me salvation, I should have 
been condemned to the pit of hell ; in myself I find no ground of 
hope, but rather of trembling. But I feel great hope in the mercy 
and goodness of God, Who has so long waited for me, and now 
has called me when I deserved, aye, and thought of, anything 
but this ! ' Then he took my hand and said, ' Father, I cannot 
express how much I am indebted to you, for you were sent by 



Life of Father yohn Gerard. clxv 

God to give me this happiness.' I found, moreover, that he had 
no temptation against faith, but most firmly believed and con- 
fessed every point, and I saw most clearly that God had poured 
into his soul the habits of many virtues. Then I erected an altar 
in his chamber with the ornaments which I had brought, and I 
said Mass, while he assisted with great devotion and comfort. I 
afterwards gave him the Viaticum, which he received with the 
utmost reverence. When I had finished everything, I gave him 
some advice that would be useful should he fall into his agony 
before my return, and I left him full of consolation. Now, see 
the providence of God : but a few hours after my departure, as he 
was persevering in petitions for mercy, and in acts of thanksgiving 
for the mercy he had received, he rendered up his soul to God. 

" Before his death, he asked the by-standers whether certain 
purple and red robes could be applied to the use of the altar, 
which he had received from the King when he was created a 
Knight of the Order of the Bath. The investiture of this order 
takes place only at the coronation of the King, and the Knights 
enjoy precedence before all other Knights except those of the 
most noble Order of the Garter, almost all of whom are Earls or 
other peers. He, however, was a Knight of the Bath, and he 
wished that the robes with which he had been invested at the 
coronation should be devoted to the use of the altar • for he said 
that he had derived great comfort from seeing my vestments, 
which were merely light and portable, but yet handsome, of red 
silk embroidered with silver lace. So after his death they gave me 
his suit of the peculiar robes of that order, and out of them I 
made sets of vestments of two colours, one of which the College 
of St. Omers still possesses. 

"About the same time I received into the Church a lady, the 
wife of a certain Knight, who is at the present day a very good 
and useful friend of our Fathers. Her husband was at this time 
a heretic, but his brother had been brought by me, through the 
Spiritual Exercises, to despise the world and follow the counsels 
of Christ. He introduced me to his sister, and after one or two 
interviews she embraced the Catholic faith, although she was 
well assured that she should incur great losses as soon as it should 
become known to her husband, as in truth it came to pass. For 



clxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

he first tried caresses, then threats, and left no means unemployed 
to shake her resolution, insomuch that for a long time she had 
nothing to expect or hope but to be separated from her husband, 
and stripped of all the goods of the world, that so in patience 
she might possess her soul. When her husband was on her 
account deprived of the public employment which he held, she 
bore it with great fortitude, and remained ever constant and even 
in mind. At length, by her virtue and her patience, she rendered 
her husband a friend to Catholics, and afterwards himself a 
Catholic. He was reconciled by the ministry of Father Walpole, 
to whom I had recommended her on my leaving England. 

" There were many other conversions, which I cannot mention 
separately, for I have already carried to too great length the 
narrative of these events, which are truly very insignificant if 
they are compared with the actions of others." 

XXV. 

"One case more I cannot pass over, which gave me especial 
pleasure for the sake of the person concerned ; for I do not 
know that any one was ever more dear to me. 

"Sir Everard Digby, of whom I have spoken above, had a 
friend " [Sir Oliver Manners], 1 " for whom he felt a peculiar affec- 
tion. He had often recommended him to me, and was anxious 
to give me an opportunity of making his acquaintance and 
gaining him over, if it possibly might be ; but because he held an 
office in the Court, requiring daily attendance about the King's 
person, so that he could not be absent for long together, our 
desire was long delayed. 

"At last Sir Everard met his friend, while we were both 
together in London, and he took an opportunity of asking 
him to come at a certain time to his chamber to play at cards, 
for these are books gentlemen in London study both night 
and day. He promised to come, and on his arrival he did 
not find a party at play, but only us two sitting and conversing 
very seriously; so Sir Everard asked him to sit down a little, 
until the rest should arrive. Then, in an interval of silence, 

1 See notes, pp. cciii, cclv. He was Clerk of the Council. P. R. O., Ind. 
Warrant Bk., p. 15, Dec. 30, 1603. 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxvii 

Sir Everard said, ' We two were engaged in a very serious 
conversation, in fact, concerning religion. You know,' he said, 
addressing the visitor, 'that I am friendly to Catholics and to 
the Catholic faith ; I was, nevertheless, disputing with this 
gentleman, who is a friend of mine, against the Catholic faith, 
in order to see what defence he could make ; for he is an earnest 
Catholic, as I do not hesitate to tell you.' Then, turning to 
me, he begged me not to be vexed that he betrayed me to a 
stranger. 'And I must say,' he continued, 'he so well defended 
the Catholic faith that I could not answer him, and I am glad 
that you have come to help me.' 

"The visitor was young and confident, and trusting in his 
own great abilities, expected to carry everything before him, so 
good was his cause and so lightly did he esteem me, as he 
afterwards confessed. So he began to allege many objections 
to the arguments before used. I waited with patience until he 
ceased speaking, and then answered in few words. He urged 
his points, and so we argued one against the other for a short 
hour's space. Afterwards I began to explain my view more fully, 
and to confirm it with texts of Holy Scripture and passages from 
the Fathers, and with such reasons as came to my mind. And 
I felt, as I often did, God supplying me words as I spoke on 
His behalf in great might, not for the sake of me that spoke, nor 
for any desert of mine, but just as He gives milk to a mother 
when she has an infant who needs to be fed with milk. My 
young friend was of a docile nature, and could no way bear to 
speak against the truth when he saw it ; so that he listened in 
silence, and God was meantime speaking to his heart with a 
voice far more powerful and efficacious. God, too, gave him 
ears to hear, so that the word fell not upon stony ground, nor 
among thorns, but into good soil, yea, very good, that yielded 
by God's grace a hundred-fold in its season. So before he left 
he was fully resolved to become a Catholic, and took with him 
a book to assist him in preparing for a good confession, which 
he made before a week had passed. And from that time it was 
not enough for him to walk in the ordinary path of God's 
commandments, but God prepared him for higher things; and 
whatever counsels I gave him he received with eagerness, and 



clxviii Life of Father John Gerard, 

retained not only in a faithful memory, but in a most ready will. 
He began to use the daily examination of conscience, and even 
learned the method of meditation, and made a meditation every 
day. He was forced to rise very early to do this before he went 
to the King, which in summer was at break of day, for the King 
went hunting every day, and he, by duty of his office, was 
necessarily present at the royal breakfast. He would, moreover, 
so with his whole soul devour pious books, that he always had 
one in his pocket ; and in the King's Court and in the Presence- 
chamber, while courtiers and ladies were standing around, you 
might see him turn himself to a window, and there read a chapter 
of Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ, a book with which 
he was most intimate ; and after he had read it, you might see 
him turn in body, but not in mind, towards the others, for there 
he would stand rapt in thought, while the rest perhaps were 
supposing that he was admiring the beauty of some lady, or 
thinking over the means to climb to great honours. In truth, 
he had no need to take particular pains about this, for, in the 
first place, he was son and brother to an Earl, and, moreover, 
the place and office which he filled were very honourable, giving 
him the ear of the King every day. His wit could not fail to 
distinguish favourable opportunities for gaining his requests, and, 
in fact, the King had given him an office which he afterwards 
sold, but which, had he kept it, would have brought him in more 
than ten thousand florins [1,000/.] a year. In short, such was his 
position that he would undoubtedly have soon risen to great 
honours; for he made himself acceptable to all, and was not 
a little beloved, insomuch that after he had left the Court and 
given up all hope of worldly honour, I heard it said by some 
persons of the greatest eminence and experience in the ways of 
the Court, that they had never in forty years' space known any 
one so highly valued and beloved in every quarter. 

" But, what is far more important, he was beloved in the 
Court of the King of Kings, and inspired to desire and seek after 
greater and more abiding blessings. So he conceived the wish 
of trying the Spiritual Exercises, in the course of which he 
determined to desert the Court, and devote himself to those 
pursuits which would render him most pleasing to God and 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxix 

most profitable to his neighbour; so with as little delay as 
possible he made such a disposition of his goods as would 
enable him freely to make his escape from England. He then, 
to the surprise of all, asked and obtained the King's leave to 
go to Italy, where he still resides, and he is so well known to 
our Fathers that there is no need to write anything more con- 
cerning him ; but this I can say, that wherever I have known 
him to have been, he has left men filled with great esteem for 
him, and expectation of yet greater things." . . . 

" The conversions which took place in the country were not 
few, and some were cases of heads of families ; but I have already 
gone to great length, and I will here recount one only, the 
beginning and end of which I saw to be good. 

"There was a lady, a kinswoman of my hostess, whose 
husband had now many years been a Catholic, yet neither her 
husband, nor any of her friends, nor my hostess herself, who 
loved her as a sister, could ever lead her to become a Catholic. 
She did not object to listen to Catholics, even to Priests, and was 
fond of earnest argument with them ; but she would believe no 
one but herself, and indeed her talents were greater than I have 
often met with in a woman. My hostess often mourned over this 
lady, and grieved that no remedy could be found ; she wished 
that I should once see her. She spoke highly in praise of her 
talents and amiable disposition, and of her life and behaviour in 
all respects, with the one solitary exception of her being an 
obstinate heretic. I asked my hostess, therefore, to invite her 
to pay us a visit, although she lived in a distant county. She 
came according to the invitation, and we took care that she 
should find me showing myself in public, and dressed as though 
I had been a guest just arrived from London. On the first two 
days we did but little, for we knew that she would have plenty of 
time afterwards, and I wished to remove all timidity from her ; 
for though she had been accustomed to meet Priests at that 
house, yet they had kept mostly to their chambers. But as soon 
as I judged her to be convinced that I was a Catholic, but not a 
Priest, I began slowly to turn my conversation with her often 
upon religion. At first I spoke little, but to such purpose that 
she could not answer me j and so I left her, not urging her, but 
/ 



clxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

rather leaving her with a desire to hear more. At length, after a 
few days, I judged her thoroughly prepared, and I arranged that 
my hostess should begin to talk seriously upon these topics, and 
that when she saw me enter into the conversation and carry it on, 
she should leave us in company with one or two of the lady's 
daughters, for she had brought three with her. This having been 
done, we began the combat with, as it seemed to her, various 
success, for one or two hours ; and then she listened to me as I 
spoke without interruption for two or three hours more. She 
spoke little in answer, and did not like on the spot to acknow- 
ledge herself vanquished, but she thanked me heartily, and went 
away quite red and flushed in the face. She was truly moved, or, 
rather, changed interiorly, and straightway she ran to my hostess 
and said, * Oh, cousin, what have you done?' 

" ' What have I done ? ' replied the other. 

" ' Oh, who is it,' she rejoined, 'that you introduced me to? Is 
he such a one as you represented to me ? At any rate, he is,' . . . 
and she spoke in much higher terms of my learning and language 
than I deserved, and she added that she could not resist what I 
urged, nor answer it. 

" On the following day God confirmed what He had wrought 
in her, and she surrendered at discretion, and accepted a book to 
help her to prepare for confession. Meantime, with the mother's 
consent and assistance, I instructed her three daughters, and 
when they had learned the catechism, I heard their confessions. 
The mother, however, during the time of her preparation, began 
to be filled with trouble and sorrow, not on account of leaving 
her heresy, but through fear of confession. I, on the contrary, 
encouraged her to persevere, and adduced arguments against her 
timidity, but I could not rid her of it, and so, seeing that she was 
ready as far as examination was concerned, but nevertheless put 
the matter off from day to day, and begged a little more time to 
prepare, I would not consent. I told her that this came from the 
enemy, who grieved to leave his habitation, and at length she saw 
and acknowledged this. For as soon as out of obedience she had 
made her confession, she felt relieved of a great burden, and 
filled with consolation ; and she told me that now she was glad 
not to have delayed longer. 



Life of Father Joh?i Gerard. clxxi 

" I have often found this, that some souls experience great 
trouble when first they make confession on being reconciled to 
the Church of God. Some persons even fall sick and faint, so as 
to be forced to cease speaking for a time and sit down, until they 
have recovered a little and are able to continue; and this has 
happened even when at their first coming they were in sound 
health, and ready to confess. And then when they recommenced, 
they again fell ill, and this happened two or three times in the 
course of their first confession. But when the confession was 
finished, they not only felt no sickness, but having received 
absolution, they went away full of joy and consolation. Some, in 
fact, have remarked to me, that did men but know what conso- 
lation is gained in confession, they would never be deprived of 
so great a happiness. 

" Among these was to be reckoned this lady, who came forth 
from confession full of consolation, and gave most hearty thanks 
to her cousin, for that by her means she had been admitted to 
share in so great a happiness. So great was God's mercy towards 
her, that thenceforth she gave herself wholly up to devotion. On 
her return home she devoted herself to making handsome vest- 
ments, and, whenever she was able, she procured the company of 
Priests. And not content with this, she was anxious to return 
wholly to our house, and to dwell with us, in order to have more 
frequent access to the Sacraments, and the opportunity of hearing 
the public and private exhortations that we had every Sunday and 
Festival-day. She stayed with us about two years, and all that 
time she gave herself up to devotion and the constant reading of 
pious books. She was clearly led to this course of life by the 
special mercy and providence of God; for at the end of the 
period I have mentioned, although she seemed stout and strong, 
she was suddenly attacked with disease, by which, within a few 
days, she was so weakened, that no skill of the physicians could 
restore her strength. She was warned to prepare for the life to 
come, and she repeated a good and careful confession of her 
whole life. 

"At length, finding herself in her last agony, she wished to 
write a letter to her brother, who was a heretic, and almost the 
greatest enemy the Catholics had in the county in which he 



clxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

dwelt. To him, then, she wished to send a letter, written by her 
daughter's hand, but subscribed with her own, to the following 
effect : That he knew she had long been a strenuous upholder of 
this new religion, so that he might be the more convinced that 
she would not have changed it without good grounds, and that 
she had certain and unanswerable authorities for the faith which 
she had adopted ; wherefore she protested to him that ever since 
the time when she embraced the faith she had lived in peace of 
conscience, and that never before that time had she enjoyed true 
internal consolation; finally, she begged him to have a care of 
his soul, and proceeded thus : ' I, your sister, now at the point of 
death, by these my last words, beg and beseech you to embrace 
the Catholic and ancient faith; and I protest that there is no 
other in which you can be saved.' These were her sentiments 
when almost come into her last agony, from which I perceived 
that she was wholly converted from heresy, and full of charity 
towards her neighbour; so having asked her a few questions, and 
found that she was not troubled with any temptations of presump- 
tion or of despair, I gave her as much help as I could in forming 
and uttering acts of the opposite virtues. After which, when she 
was on the point of death, I offered her a picture of the Passion 
of Christ, and she embraced and kissed it with the greatest 
affection. I put also a blessed medal into her hands, and 
reminded her to invoke the name of Jesus in her heart at least, in 
order to gain the indulgences, although she could not speak. I 
then asked her to give some sign to show that she did thus from 
her heart, whereupon she caught hold of the medal and kissed it, 
repeating this action several times. Observing she made answer 
to me by signs, I bade her conceive a great sorrow for ever 
having offended God, Who was so good in Himself, and had 
shown so great mercy to her, and to give a sign of it by raising 
her hand: she did so with great earnestness; then to conceive 
sorrow that she had ever been in heresy, and had resisted God 
and the Church, of which also she gave a sign ; then to conceive 
the wish that all heretics might be converted, and that she 
willingly offered her life for their conversion, and she again made 
the signal with great earnestness, and also took my hand within 
her own, which were already chill, and held it firmly, repeating 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxiii 

the signs that she was pleased with the suggestions I made to 
her. And I continued up to her last gasp, encouraging her, and 
exhorting her to praise God in her heart, to desire that all 
creatures should praise and serve Him, and to offer her life for 
this end. And she gave me answer to everything, now raising, now 
lowering her hand, just as I asked her to do in assent to what I 
suggested. All the by-standers, who were numerous, and a Priest 
also who was among them, were in great admiration, and declared 
that they never witnessed such a death as this. For she continued, 
as I have said, responding to my suggestions up to the very last 
breath, raising her hand slightly when she could no longer raise it 
much. In these interior acts she gave up her soul, without any 
trouble of mind or convulsion of body, but like one going off to 
sleep, she went to rest in peace. 

" Her youngest daughter had already died holily in our house 
before her mother. The second daughter married a rich man, 
and brought him to me from a considerable distance to be made 
a Catholic. The eldest still lives in the same house, to be 
espoused not to man but to God, for she has a vocation to the 
Religious state. In the meantime she lives there religiously, and 
devotes herself to the service of Religious, as the lady of the house 
always did, and does still." . . . 

" I gave the Spiritual Exercises in this house to many others, 
as well to those who formed part of the family as to others ; and 
in each case the fruit which I hoped for was produced." . . . 

" But suddenly all things were upset for a time, and all good 
hindered by the Powder Plot, as it is called. And if proof were 
wanting that I knew nothing of this affair, this alone would be 
sufficient, that at that very time I had sent several from England 
across the sea into these parts. One was a lady, who was going 
to be a Nun in the Benedictine Convent at Brussels, whither I 
had sent two others not long before, who are now in high authority 
there. Another had been an heretical minister, whom I had 
brought to the Faith and instructed. He was the last that I 
received into the Church before these disturbances. When these 
persons, with certain others, were on the point of crossing the 
Channel, orders were sent to allow no ships to leave ; they were, 
consequently, all taken and thrown into prison, from which they 



clxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

were released two years ago. He who had been a minister is at 
present studying in the Roman College; and the lady of whom I 
spoke is now professed in the convent whither she was going 
when she was taken. Only one other minister besides the one 
just mentioned did I convert in England, and he is now a Priest 
and is working in that vineyard. I also sent over many youths 
to the Seminaries while I was in this last residence of mine, who 
will, by God's help, give fruit in due season. 

" But if we have received good things from God's hands, why 
should we not also bear with evil things ? — if those things can be 
truly called evil which are sent from Him, and therefore sent that 
He may draw good from them, for those who receive them well, 
and humbly recognize and adore His providence, both when He 
gives and when He takes away. He had, indeed, given me many 
and great consolations in this residence ; interior consolations 
chiefly, from conversions and from the signal progress in virtue of 
many souls ; but exterior consolations were not wanting. For in 
external matters everything was well and abundantly supplied me. 
I had several excellent horses for my missionary journeys, and all 
that I could wish for to carry on the work I had in hand. Then, 
in the house itself, the arrangements were made in the best way 
both for our health and our convenience. And for companion I 
had Father Strange, who is now in the Tower 1 (for Master Digby 
had obtained Father Percy from the Superior), and another Priest 
who resided a long time with us. We had, moreover, good store 
of useful books, which were kept in a library without any conceal- 
ment, because they had the appearance of belonging to the young 
Baron, and of having been left him by his uncle, 2 who was a very 
learned and studious nobleman, and was well known for his piety. 
He had, in fact, resigned the right and title of the barony to his 

1 Qui nunc in rare est (MS.). An evident mistake of the copyist for "in 
turre," as is clear from a former passage, where Father Gerard says, " Father 
Thomas Strange is at present suffering imprisonment in the Tower of London, 
where he has had to undergo many grievous tortures, and a long solitary con- 
finement. This solitude indeed, if we look only to his natural disposition, 
cannot but be very irksome and oppressive to him ; but he is not solitary who 
has God always present with him, consoling him, and supplying in an eminent 
degree and full abundance all those comforts which we are wont to go begging, 
for from creatures." 

2 Sir Ambrose Vaux, Prior of St. John of Jerusalem. 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxv 

younger brother, the father of the present lord, in order that he 
might more entirely and securely devote himself to God and his 
studies. If he had lived a little longer, he would assuredly have 
been a member of our Society, for on his death-bed this was the 
only thing that caused him regret, namely, that he could not then 
be admitted into the Society, a thing he desired most earnestly. 

" Our vestments and altar furniture were both plentiful and 
costly. We had two sets for each colour which the Church uses ; 
one for ordinary use, the other for Feast-days : some of these latter 
were embroidered with gold and pearls, and figured by well-skilled 
hands. We had six massive silver candlesticks on the altar, 
besides those at the sides for the Elevation ; the cruets were of 
silver also, as were the basin for the lavabo, the bell, and the 
thurible. There were, moreover, lamps hanging from silver chains, 
and a silver crucifix on the altar. For greater Festivals, however, 
I had a crucifix of gold, a foot in height, on the top of which was 
represented a pelican, while on the right arm of the cross was an 
eagle with expanded wings carrying on its back its young ones, 
who were also attempting to fly; on the left arm a phoenix 
expiring in flames that it might leave an offspring after it ; and 
at the foot was a hen with her chickens, gathering them under 
her wings. All this was made of wrought gold by a celebrated 
artist." ... 

u But I, who was not sufficiently grateful to God for these 
benefits which I have mentioned, and many others, was com- 
pelled to leave them to others who could use them better and to 
greater advantage. 

" For since it was my chief friends who were involved in that 
disaster of the Powder Plot, the Council on this account believed 
me to be privy to it, and from the first sought for me with great 
persistence and severity. They sent certain magistrates to search 
our house most exactly, with orders, if they found me not, to stay 
in the house till recalled, to post guards all round the house 
every night, and to have men on the watch both day and night 
at a distance of three miles from the house on every side, who 
were to apprehend all whom they did not know and bring them 
before the Justices. All this was done to the letter. But 
immediately the news reached us of such a plot having been 



clxxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

discovered, and we learnt that certain of our friends had been 
killed and others taken, expecting that in such a season we, 
too, should have something to suffer, we had made all snug 
before they came, so that they found nothing. They continued 
searching, however, for many days, till at last my hostess dis- 
covered to the Justice in chief command one of the hiding-places 
in which a few books had been stowed away, thinking that he 
would then desist from searching any further, under the 
impression that if a Priest had been in the house he would 
have been hidden there, yet they continued in the house for full 
nine days ; and I, meanwhile, remained shut up in a hole where 
I could sit, but not stand upright. This time, however, I did 
not suffer from hunger, for every night food was brought to me 
secretly ; nay, after four or five days, when the rigour of the 
search was somewhat relaxed, my friends even took me out at 
night and warmed me at a fire, for it was wintry weather, just 
before Christmas-tide. And when nine days had passed the 
searching party withdrew, believing it impossible I could be 
there so long without being discovered. 

" In the meantime they had taken a Priest, who, knowing 
nothing of the watch set about the place, was coming to our 
house for safety. This good Priest (by name Thomas Laithwaite, 1 
who is now of our Society, and is labouring in England) had left 
us a few days before at my request, when we heard of the Plot, in 
order to communicate with Father Garnett, and obtain from him 
for me instructions how to act in the present crisis. Even on his 
way thither he was taken, but escaped again for that time in the 
following manner. His captors took him to an inn, intending to 
bring him up for examination and committal the next day. On 
entering the inn he took off his cloak and sword and laid them on 
a bench ; then, on pretence of looking after his horse and getting 
him taken to water, he went to the stable, and, as there was a 
stream near the house, he bade the boy lead the horse thither at 
once, and himself went along also. When they had come to the 
stream and the horse was drinking, ' Go,' said he to the lad, ' get 

1 This name is written " Lathuilli " in the MS. English names frequently 
suffer at the hands of this copyist. We have restored the true name by the aid 
of Dr. Oliver's Collectanea. 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxvii 

ready the hay and the straw for his bed, and I will bring him 
back when he has drunk.' The boy returned to the stable 
without further thought, and he, mounting his horse, spurred 
him into the stream, and swam him to the opposite bank. Those 
in the inn, seeing his cloak and sword still lying there, had for 
some time no suspicion of his stratagem ; but hearing from the 
stable-boy what had happened, they saw they had been outwitted, 
and immediately set off in pursuit. They were, however, too late, 
for the fugitive, knowing the way well, got to the house of a 
Catholic before night, and lay hid there for a few days. Then, 
finding that he could not get to Father Garnett, and thinking all 
danger had passed in our direction, he tried to return to me. 
But while avoiding Charybdis he fell into the clutches of Scylla ; 
for, as I said above, he was taken on his way to our house, and 
dragged to London. They were not able, however, to prove him 
a Priest, and his brother was allowed to buy him his freedom for 
a sum of money. 

" Two other Priests who were resident with me in that house 
(one of whom, as I said before, was Father Strange), at the 
beginning of their troubles wished to go to Father Garnett and 
remain with him. Both of them, however, were taken prisoners 
on their way ■ one was thrown into Bridewell, and was afterwards 
banished, together with other Priests, while Father Strange, the 
other, was sent to the Tower, where he suffered much, as has 
been before mentioned." 

XXVI. 

" The history of the Plot, its causes and consequences, is but 
too well known ; since it has been written by both friends and 
enemies, though perhaps by neither exactly as it ought to be. I 
myself, when I came from England to Rome, was ordered to put 
in writing an account of the whole affair, and did so as well as I 
could. There is no need, therefore, to repeat here what I 
wrote at length on that occasion." 1 . . . 

" I will now add a few words about myself before closing this 
narrative. I have stated in the other treatise, of which I spoke, 

1 Father Gerard here gives a summary of his Narrative of the Gunpowder 
Plot. 



clxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

that a proclamation was issued against three Jesuit Fathers, of 
whom I was one ; and, though the most unworthy, I was named 
first in the proclamation, whereas I was the subject of one, and 
far inferior in all respects to the other. All this, however, I 
solemnly protest, was utterly groundless; for I knew absolutely 
nothing of the Plot from any one whatsoever, not even under the 
seal of confession as the other two did ; nor had I the slightest 
notion that any such scheme was entertained by any Catholic 
gentleman, until by public rumour news was brought us of 
its discovery, as it was to all others dwelling in that part of the 
country. 

" When I saw by that long search of nine days that I was 
sought after and aimed at in particular, I wrote a public letter, as 
if to some friends, in which, by many arguments, and by pro- 
testations beyond all cavil, I maintained my entire innocence of 
the charges brought against me. Of this letter I caused many 
copies to be taken, and to be dropped about the London streets 
very early in the morning. These were found and read by many 
persons, and a copy was shown to the King by one of the Lords 
of Council, who was no enemy either of mine or of my cause. 
The King, as I heard, was personally satisfied by this. Afterwards, 
however, when information was given them of Father Garnett's 
hiding-place, and they conceived hopes of catching him, and of 
turning the whole charge on the Society, they thought it 
necessary to publish the names of some of ours as the principal 
contrivers of the Plot. So they put my name down, as well as 
those of the other two Fathers, of whom they had heard from a 
certain servant of Master Catesby. This man, however, before 
his death, repenting of this injury he had done them, confessed 
that he had been induced to say what he did of them against his 
conscience, by the fear of death on the one hand, and by the 
hope of pardon, and by the persuasions and suggestions of 
Secretary Cecil on the other. And it is possible that some 
persons at that time had a real suspicion that I was privy to the 
thing, because they knew that many of the gentlemen who had 
been taken were friends of mine, and were in the habit of visiting 
me at my London house. This, indeed, was acknowledged by 
one of them in his examination, though at the same time he 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxix 

affirmed that I knew nothing of their scheme. Nor did they 
ever get a single word against me from any of their exami- 
nations. Master Digby, indeed, who was known to be most 
intimate with me, and for that reason was most strictly examined 
about me, publicly protested in open court that he never dare 
mention a syllable of it to me, because I should never have 
permitted him to go on with it. When I heard of all this, and, 
besides, had learnt several particulars concerning Father Garnett, 
which proved that any knowledge he had was under seal of con- 
fession, and imparted to him by the only Priest of the Society 
who knew of it, and that also only in confession, it seemed to 
me that I was sufficiently cleared of the charge ; and in order to 
bring this fact into notice, I prepared three letters to three Lords 
of the Council, a little before the death of the condemned 
conspirators, in which I showed more at full that I was 
completely ignorant of the whole matter, and pointed out how 
they might satisfy themselves of the same while those gentlemen 
were yet alive. Whether they did so or not, I do not know ; but 
this much I know, that in the whole process of Father Garnett's 
trial, in which after the receipt of these letters they tried their 
utmost to defame the whole Society, and in particular to charge 
this Plot on the English mission, they never once mentioned me. 
They spoke, indeed, of three Fathers as guilty, but they named 
those two who had heard of it in confession, and Father 
Ouldcorne, not as privy to the Plot beforehand, but as an 
accomplice post factum. 

" Nevertheless, I took the greatest precaution to remain 
hidden; and I lay at a place in London known to no one. 
So by the protection of God I continued safe, and if it had 
seemed good I could have remained so still longer. I did not, 
therefore, leave England to avoid being taken, but as in that great 
disturbance it was no time for labouring, but rather for keeping 
quiet, I took a favourable opportunity that presented itself of 
passing over into these parts and reposing a little, that after so 
long a period of distracting work in all kinds of company, I 
might take breath and recover strength for future labours. Why, 
even at that very time when I was keeping so close, and when 
nearly all my friends were either in prison, or so upset that they 



clxxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

-could scarcely help themselves, much less me, though I had lost 
the house I had in London, through the fault of one who dis- 
closed it, as I have said, and though strict watch was kept 
everywhere, and danger beset me on all sides ; yet, before I 
had settled to leave England, I managed to hire another house 
in London very fit for my purpose, perhaps more so than the 
former. I managed also to furnish it with everything necessary, 
and made some good hiding-places in it; and there I remained 
in safety the whole of Lent before my departure. Besides this 
house I also hired another, finer and larger than this, which I 
intended should be in common between Father Antony 
Hoskins and me. This house after my departure was used by 
the Superior of the mission for a considerable time. 

" The first of these last-mentioned houses I brought into 
some little danger, about the end of Lent, in order to rescue one 
of our Fathers from imminent danger. The thing happened in 
this wise. The good Father, by name Thomas Everett, had gone 
to a gentleman's house in London, where there were some false 
brethren, or else some talkative ones; for the fact reached the 
ears of the Council. And as he is something of my height, and 
has black hair, Cecil thought it was I of whom notice was given 
him, and said to a private friend of his, ' Now we shall have him,' 
naming me. However, he had neither the one nor the other. 
For I, learning that the Father had gone to this place, where he 
could not possibly remain hidden, asked my friend, in whose 
house I had myself been concealed before I had procured and 
furnished my new abode, to fetch him and keep him close in his 
house for a time, which he did. Here he remained while the 
house he had just left was undergoing a strict search. Now it so 
happened that, after a few days, a search was also made in the 
very place to which he had been brought, on account of some 
books of Father Garnett's which had been seen, and which this 
gentleman used to keep for him. After rifling the place well and 
finding no one, for Father Everett had betaken himself to a 
hiding-place, they carried off the master and mistress of the 
house, and threw them into prison. Now when I heard this, and 
Jcnew there was no Catholic left in the house, fearing lest the 
Father should either perish with hunger, or come forth to be 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxxi 

taken, I sent persons from my own house, to whom I described 
the position of his hiding-place. They went thither, and called 
to him, and knocked at the place, for him to open it; he, 
however, would neither open nor answer, though they said that I 
had sent them for him. For, as he did not know their voices, he 
was afraid that this was a trick of the searchers, who sometimes 
pretend to depart, and then after a time return, and assuming a 
friendly tone, go about the rooms, asking any who are hidden 
to come out, for that the searchers are all gone. The good 
Father suspected that this was the case now, and therefore made 
no answer. My messengers remained a long time trying to 
reassure him, and at last were obliged to return, but so late, that 
they fell into the hands of the watch. They were detained in 
custody that night, and got off with some difficulty the next day. 
One of them, however, was recognized as having formerly lived 
with a Catholic, and was therefore believed to be a Catholic 
himself, and as it was now known that he lived in the house 
that I had hired, this brought that house into suspicion, though 
it had been ostensibly hired by a schismatic, who was under no 
suspicion at all. The consequence was that some four days later 
the chief magistrate of London, who is called the mayor, came 
with a posse of constables to search the house. 

" In the meantime, hearing that Father Thomas would not 
answer, and knowing well that he was there, to prevent his- 
perishing from starvation, I sent the next night another party with 
the man who had made the hiding-place and knew how to open it. 
The place was thus opened, and the good Father rescued from 
his perilous position. They brought him to my house, and there he 
remained. I myself, however, before he arrived, had gone to a 
friend's house, a very secure place, for the purpose of staying there 
a little, as I had some fears that the apprehension of my servants 
a day or two back might bring the searchers to my house. My 
fears were well founded : for on Holy Thursday, while Father 
Everett was saying Mass, and had just finished the Offertory, 
there was a great tumult and noise at the garden gate ; and the 
mayor used such violence, and made such quick work of it, as to 
have entered the garden, and the house, and to be now actually 
mounting the stairs, just as the Father, all vested as he was, and. 



clxxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

with all the altar furniture bundled up, had entered his hiding- 
place. So near a matter was it, that the mayor and his company- 
smelt the smoke of the extinguished candles, so that they made 
sure a Priest had been there, and were the more eager in their 
search. But of the three hiding-places in the house they did not 
find one. So they departed, taking with them those men whom 
they found in the house, and who acknowledged themselves to be 
Catholics, and the schismatic also who passed for the house- 
holder. After this, having again released Father Everett from his 
hiding-hole and advised him to leave London, I determined not 
to use that house again for some time. And seeing that the 
times were such as called us rather to remain quiet, than to gird 
ourselves for work, I took the first opportunity of crossing the sea 
and coming into these parts. 1 

" I recommended my friends to different Fathers, asking them 
to have special care of them during my absence. As for my 
hostess," Mrs. Vaux, "she was brought to London after that long 
search for me, and strictly examined about me by the Lords of 
the Council ; but she answered to everything so discreetly as to 
escape all blame. At last they produced a letter of hers to a 
certain relative, asking for the release of Father Strange and 
another, of whom I spoke before. This relative of hers was the 
chief man in the county in which they had been taken, and she 
thought she could by her intercession with him prevail for their 
release. But the treacherous man, who had often enough, so far 
as words went, offered to serve her in any way, proved the truth 
of our Lord's prophecy : ' A man's enemies shall be those of his 
own household ; ' for he immediately sent up her letter to the 
Council. They showed her, therefore, her own letter, and said to 
her, ' You see now that you are entirely at the King's mercy for 

1 In a letter addressed by Father Ouldcorne to the Council, dated March 
25, 1606, in which he relates all that had passed in the Tower between Father 
Garnett and himself, but in a way that could not be hurtful to either, the 
following passage occurs. "Also Mr. Garnett told me that while he was in 
the Gatehouse he received a note written in orange (but he told me not from 
whom) whereby he understood that Father Tesimond was gone over sea, and 
that Father Gerard would presently follow him after he had recovered a little 
more strength : 'whereby' (said Garnett) 'I gather he hath been lately in some 
secret place, as we were ; but by this I hope he hath recovered his strength, 
and is also past over the sea' " (P. R. O., Gunpowder Plot Book, n. 214). 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxxiii 

life or death ; so if you consent to tell us where Father Gerard is, 
you shall have your life.' 

"'I do not know where he is,' she answered; 'and if I did 
know, I would not tell you.' 

" Then rose one of the lords who had been a former friend of 
hers, to accompany her to the door out of courtesy, and on the 
way said to her persuasively, ' Have pity on yourself and on your 
children, and say what is required of you, or otherwise you will 
certainly die.' 

" To which she answered with a loud voice, ' Then, my lord, 
I will die.' 

" This was said when the door had been opened, so that her 
servants who were waiting for her heard what she said, and all 
burst into weeping. But the Council only said this to terrify her, 
for they did not commit her to prison, but sent her to the house 
of a certain gentleman in the city, and after being held here in 
custody for a time, she was released, but on condition of 
remaining in London. And one of the principal Lords of the 
Council acknowledged to a friend that he had nothing against her 
except that she was a stout Papist, going ahead of others, and, as 
it were, a leader in evil. 

" Immediately she was released from custody, knowing that I 
was then in London, quite forgetful of herself, she set about 
taking care of me, and provided all the furniture and other things 
necessary for my new house. Moreover, she sent me whole sheets 
daily, recounting everything that occurred; and when she knew 
that I wished to cross the sea for a time, she bid me not spare 
expense, so that I secured a safe passage, for that she would pay 
everything, though it should cost five thousand florins; and, in 
fact, she sent me at once a thousand florins [ioo/.] for my journey. 
I left her in the care of Father Percy, who had already, as my 
companion, lived a long time at her house. There he still 
remains, and does much good. I went straight to Rome, and 
being sent back thence to these parts, was fixed at Louvain. 

" I have received two signal benefits on the 3rd of May, 
through the intercession, as I think, of blessed Father Garnett, 
who went to Heaven on that day. The first was as follows : When 
I had come to the port where, according to agreement, I was to 



clxxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

embark with certain high personages, in order to pass unchallenged 
out of England, they, out of fear, excused themselves from per- 
forming their promise. And in this mind they continued till the 
hour of the day fixed for embarking. Now just at that time Father 
Garnett's martyrdom was consummated in London, and he being 
received into Heaven remembered me upon earth ; for the minds 
of those lords were so changed, that the Ambassadors themselves 
came to fetch me, and with their own hands helped to dress me in 
Spanish costume, so that I might be taken for one of their suite, 
and so pass free. All went well, and I do not doubt that I owed 
it to Father Garnett's prayers. 

" The other and greater benefit is that three years later, on 
the same 3rd of May, I was admitted into the body of the Society, 
by the four solemn vows, 1 though most unworthy. This I look 
upon as the greatest and most signal favour I have ever received, 
and it seems to me that God wished to show me that I owed this 
also to the prayers of Father Garnett, from an exact similarity 
in the circumstance of time between my profession and his 
martyrdom. For the day originally fixed for both had been the 
1 st of May, the Feast of the Holy Apostles SS. Philip and James, 
and in both cases unforeseen delays postponed the event till the 
3rd of May. 

" God grant that I may truly love and worthily carry the 
Cross of Jesus, that I may walk worthy of the vocation whereunto 
I am called. This one thing I have asked of our Lord, and this 
will I continue to ask, that I may dwell in the House of God all 
my days, until I begin to prove myself grateful for so great a 
favour, and that though hitherto unfruitful, yet by the fertility 
of the olive-tree in which I have been grafted, I may at length 
begin to bear some fruit!" 

1 Both Father Bartoli and Father More remark that Father Gerard was 
admitted to the solemn vows of a Professed Father by a special favour, as his 
learning, owing to the short course of study through which he had passed, fell 
short of that which the Society requires as a condition of Profession. Father 
Bartoli says that this "most rare but most just privilege" was conferred on 
him, "as virtue, in which he exceeded the standard, supplied for the studies in 
which he fell short of it " {Inghilterra, p. 586). 



Life of Father yohn Gerard. clxxxv 

XXVII. 
Here the Autobiography of Father Gerard ends. Though he 
survived his escape from England thirty-one years, 1 we have not 
much more to relate of the events of his life. We have, however, 
first a few notes to record on the concluding portion of the 
narrative. 

First, with regard to the brave Elizabeth Vaux. She was 
re-arrested, long after the liberation of which Father Gerard has 
told us, for in a letter from Louvain to Father Aquaviva, the 
General of the Society, dated August 17, 161 2, he gives the 
following account of her conduct, and that of her son, Lord 
Vaux, in prison. We translate from the Latin original. 2 

"Lord Vaux remains in prison under condemnation, but by 
no means cast down. He seems with invincible courage to 
trample on rather than to be deprived of the world, and not so 
much to have lost as to have contemned its goods. His praise 
certainly is in the mouths of all men. And his cause is so honour- 
able to him, and to the Catholic religion, and so disgraceful to his 
enemies, that the King seemed to be ready to let the Baron go, 
and to restore him all his goods, when, God so disposing it, and 
preserving His servant for great things, some men making a more 
careful search than usual, found out that the mother of the Baron, 
who was herself under condemnation and in prison, but who 
retained all her fervour and devotion, had received a Priest into 
her cell on the very Feast of St. John Baptist. When the officers 
entered, they found a good Father who had just completed the 
Holy Sacrifice, and was in the act of distributing the most holy 
Body of Christ to those who were assisting. Mrs. Vaux herself, 
and two others, had communicated. The Priest turned back to 
the altar, and quietly received the remaining Hosts, lest they 
should fall into sacrilegious hands. The first man who entered 
the room, seeing the altar well appointed, and all of them 
kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, was astounded; and 
forgetting the fierceness with which, under similar circumstances, 
most people rush upon a Priest, only uttered these words : 

1 Bartoli, Inghiltcrra, pp. 586, 592. 

2 Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iii., n. ill. 



clxxxvi Life of Father John Gerard, 

1 Has not your ladyship suffered enough already for this sort 
of thing ? ' 

"The wonder is of old standing on the part of those who do 
not understand how blessed is the life that God will give to those 
who never change their fidelity to Him, and who, fearing God 
more than the King, even though they have but just escaped 
death, still wish to bury the dead. So our good Father Cornforth 
was taken : a very holy man, whose life well deserves recording. 
He was carried oft" to the pseudo-Prelate of Canterbury, and as he 
could not conceal his Priesthood on account of those with whom 
he was taken, so neither would he for his own safety's sake, hide 
his Religious state. So he was sent off to that prison from which 
they usually take their victims when they want an offering for the 
god of heresy. Canterbury then went to the King in all haste 
and fury, and putting fire to the cotton to raise a flame, so 
inflamed the King's mind against the Baron, that he seems to 
have diverted him from his inclination to set him free to the very 
reverse. But notwithstanding all this, as the Baron has those 
counsellors for him who are most powerful with the King, we all 
hope that the King will soon be pacified, and that all will end 
well for our friend, especially if your Paternity and yours will help 
him with your holy prayers." 

In the Public Record Office we have various papers which 
add a little to what Father Gerard has here written. Letters 1 
dated February 26 and October 22, 161 2, say that Mrs. Vaux, 
Lord Vaux's mother, was condemned to perpetual imprison- 
ment for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and that Lord 
Vaux was transferred to the custody of the Dean of Westminster. 
The Privy Councillor, who was their friend, was Henry Howard, 
Earl of Northampton. There are three letters 2 extant from him 
to Viscount Rochester in behalf of the Vauxes. In the first he 
says that Lord Vaux's sister [Katherine, wife of Henry Nevill, 
Lord Abergavenny] has presented a petition that her brother and 
mother may, on account of the hot season, be removed from their 

1 P. R. O., Domestic, "James Z, vol. 68, n. 67, and vol. 71, n. 24; Chamber- 
lain to Carleton. 

2 P. R. O., Domestic, James /., vol. 70, nn. 25, 46, 55 ; dated August 3, 
12, and 20, 1612. 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxxvii 

keeper's house in town to that in the country; but they being 
imprisoned for life on a praemunire^ the matter rests with the 
King. And this, in the third letter, he says the Archbishop and 
Council consented to, if they can still be under charge of their 
keeper. The second letter thanks Lord Rochester for his inter- 
cession in behalf of Lord Vaux and his mother, and adds that 
they expect but little mercy where the Metropolitan [Archbishop 
Abbot] is mediator. Lastly, we have the grant 1 to Lord Vaux of 
Harrowden of his lands, &c, at Harrowden and elsewhere, in the 
counties of Essex, Bedford, Nottingham, Lincoln, and Cambridge, 
which were forfeited to the King on his conviction in a praemunire 
for refusing the oath of allegiance. Later on, May 4, 1625, 
Charles I. granted him a special pardon 2 for "not repairing to 
the Protestant church and forbearing the same," which is recited 
to be "a contempt of the King's crown and dignity." 

The proclamation for the apprehension of the three Fathers 
gives a description of Father Gerard. 3 "John Gerard, alias 
Brooke, of stature tall, and according thereunto well set; his 
complexion swart or blackish ; his face large ; his cheeks sticking 
out, and somewhat hollow underneath the cheeks ; the hair of his 
head long if it be not cut off; his beard cut close, saving little 
mustachoes, and a little tuft under his lower lip; about forty 
years old." To this we may add the description 4 of Father 
Gerard given by the ruffian Topcliffe, whose spelling is sufficiently 
" kewryoos " to be worth retaining. It is dated in the Calendar 
of the Record Office, 1583, but this is evidently erroneous, as 
Father Gerard escaped from the Tower in 1597. 

" Jhon Gerrarde y e Jhezew 1 preest that escaip out of the 
Tower and Richard Blount a Seam r y preest of estymacion, and a 
thirde preest intend to passe ou r rather after then w th the Lo 
Imbass at Dov r Rye or thirabowtts upon y t coast. 

"They have provided for a Culler to passe w th out suspycion a 
Seale lyke a Seale of the Counsall table to bleare the Eye s of 
Seartchers and officers. Therefore it were not amysse That some 

1 P. R. O., Sign. Man., vol. iii., n. 6. 

2 Rymer's Focdera, t. xviii., f. 44. 

3 P. R. O., Procla?nalion Book, p. 121. 

4 P. R. O., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 165, n. 21. 



clxxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

order were lefte w th my Lorde Trasorr that he gyve order that the 
Lres do passe under such a Seale from y r Lis But under & w th 
summe prevey mark upon the Ires besides the seale. Then any 
passendg r that carryethe a Ire w th owte suche a prevy mrk Is 
fytt to be stayed for a tyme Until hee bee knowen. 

"Jhon Gerrarde, y e Jhezew 1 is about 30 years oulde Of a 
good stature sunrwhat highe r then S r Tho Layton & upright in his 
paysse and countenance sum what stayring in his look or Eyes 
Currilde heire by Nature & blackyshe & not apt to have much 
heire of his bearde. I thincke his noase sum what wide and 
turninge Upp Blubarde Lipps turninge outwards Especially the 
over Lipps most Uppwards toword the Noase Kewryoos in 
speetche If he do now contynewe his custome And in his 
speetche he flourrethe & smyles much & a falteringe or Lispinge, 
or dooblinge of his Tonge in his speeche 

" Yor honor 5 as you will comade me 

" Ric Topclyffe alias ^" \S~^ " 

Endorsed — " Concerning Gerrard the Priest and others." 

What Sir Thomas Leighton's height may have been we do not 
know, but in the copy of this description sent by Cecil to Anne, 
Lady Markham, 1 a pen has been passed through the words "Sir 
Thomas Leighton," and the word "ordinary" is written in its 
stead. The proclamation was nearer the truth than Topcliffe 
as to Father Gerard's age, which was then forty-two. 

A correspondence between Cecil and Lady Markham betrays 
to us an offer made by her "to deliver the person of Gerard into 
the hands of the State." Her object was to obtain the pardon and 
restoration of her husband, Sir Griffin Markham, who was in 
banishment for having taken part in Watson's conspiracy. One of 
Cecil's correspondents says, 2 of " a certain lady of Nottingham- 
shire, called the Lady Markham," " this more I know, that there 
is not the like pragmatical-headed lady in this part of England." 

Her letters 3 are interesting for the mention of her two 

1 P. R. O., Domestic, James I., vol. 18, n. 19. 

2 P. R. O., Domestic, James I., vol. 47, n. 96. 

3 P. R. O., Domestic, James I., vol. 16, n. 88; vol. 18, n. 4. 



Life of Father John Gerard. clxxxix 

servants, who had gone to live with Father Gerard, but still more 
for the testimony she bears to the general belief entertained by 
Catholics in Father Gerard's sanctity, and to the improbability in 
the judgment of all who knew him of his being a party to 
the Plot. 

'•Right Honourable, — Your lordship may think me slack in 
performing that which I so freely made promise of, but the death 
of my father hath so much appalled me as I am not fit to do 
as I would. I did hear Mr. Gerard was taken, which something 
stayed me. Moreover, your lordship hath Mr. Ha. Hurlston in 
hold, who may direct you the best concerning him of any I know, 
as also I take it Sir Everard Digby came for Mr. Walley " 
[Father Garnett] ; " but thus it is I cannot learn where Mrs. 
Vaux is, neither if I knew durst I visit her. And this is most 
strange to me, neither of those which were my servants comes to 
me, which makes me think they remove with Mr. Gerard, or are 
imprisoned, but I rather think they are shifted out of the way, 
because their attendance will make their master more acceptable, 
one of them being an exquisite painter and the other a perfect 
.good embroiderer. The painter is a black man, and taller than 
the embroiderer, whose hair is yellowish, and was called 
Christopher Parker by his true name. The painter was called 
Brian Hunston. I am bold to inform you thus largely of them 
because I verily suppose they attend their wandering friend and 
master, but where, till I either see them or hear some directions, 
I cannot imagine ; but I protest to your lordship, if I could learn 
I am resolved he should speak with you, if by any means I could 
procure it, for I fear this most vile and hateful Plot hath taken 
deep and dangerous root, because I meet with many that will as 
easily be persuaded there was no gunpowder laid as that holy 
good man was an actor in the Plot ; and surely the generality did 
ever so much admire him, that they were happy or blessed in 
hearing him, and their roof sanctified by his appearance in their 
house. I am to go shortly into the country. If it would please 
your lordship to give me leave to send a man to my husband 
I should be much bound to you, for I cannot tell till I hear 
from him how to determine of those businesses occasioned by 



cxc Life of Father John Gerard. 

my father's death. I humbly beseech you commiserate my 

affliction and grant me this poor request, if it stand with your 

liking, and I shall ever pray for your increase of honour and 

happiness. So I humbly take my leave this 18th of November, 

1605. 

" Your lordship's most humble to command, 

"Anne Markham." 

Endorsed — "The Lady Markham to my Lord." 

"Right Honourable, — Afore I came out of London I sent to 
know your lordship's pleasure, but mine uncle could not meet 
with Mr. Lewnus, and indeed I did think my credit was so 
decayed with the Padre that I could not do as I would, employ 
my best endeavours to perform thereby to express my great 
desire of your lordship's good opinion. Now I find either 
necessity of their part or my two servants' credits hath given 
me so much power as I shall shortly see Mr. Gerard, but for the 
day or certain time they are too crafty to appoint, but whensoever 
I will do my best to keep him within my kenning till I hear from 
your lordship, and then, my credit preserved, which is dearer to me 
than life, your command shall be as truly obeyed as if your most 
trusty servant were commanded. I do perceive there are great 
business in hand, and your lordship is, next to His Majesty, most 
shot at, but what the project is I dare not be very inquisitive of, 
because it is not ripe, as by circumstance I perceive ; and I 
labour to make myself in good estimation with them, which 
would not be if I covet to know more than they like. This, I 
protest to God, is only to do service to your lordship. There 
had been some of them with me ere this, but great occasion hath 
drawn them to haste into other places, whither I know not. If 
the watch had continued but two days longer, Mr. Gerard had 
been pined out at Harrowden. I hear Ric. the butler is close in 
the Gatehouse, yet your lordship knows that prisons are places of 
such corruption as money will help letters to their friends to tell 
what they have been examined of, so they will guess shrewdly 
how to shift. I have none that I do trust about me with my 
resolution to do my best endeavours to preserve your lordship, 
therefore I am enforced to be brief. I beseech you pardon it in 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxci 

me, that writes in fear, but if it please your honour to send your 
note or directions to mine Uncle Harvey, I will expect till that he 
send them, and ever pray God to protect you from these most 
dangerous conspirators. For the true trial of my devotion in that 
prayer I will most sincerely labour your preservation, so I humbly 
take my leave this 3rd of January. 

" Your lordship's at command, 

"Anne Markham." 

"To the Right Honourable my very good lord the Earl of 
Salisbury. Haste this." 

Endoised — "3rd January, 1605 [-6]. Lady Markham to my 
Lord." 

The following is Cecil's answer. 1 

"Madam, — Although I do confess my great mislike of the 
daily resort and residence of the Priests, and especially the Jesuits, 
whose end can be no other than of pernicious consequence to this 
estate, yet, being in hope that warnings would make them retire 
from further tempting of law, I have used no extraordinary course 
for their apprehension, being, I confess, full of tenderness in 
matters of blood. But having now discovered, by many con- 
fessions of the late conspirators, that some of these Jesuits have 
passed so far as to be persuaders and actors in this barbarous 
conspiracy, which excludeth almost all offices of humanity from 
men that have softest hearts, I have thought good to take your 
offer for His Majesty's service, to deliver the person of Gerard 
(who is one of those) into the hands of the State. For which 
purpose, although your letter doth not well express what you 
would have done, whereby both the service may be effected and 
your name covered; yet I have procured a warrant, here inclosed, 
which will be sufficient to authorize and command any man to 
whom you shall direct it, which I have left to your own choice to 
put in, because I know not who they are which dwell thereabouts 
in whom you dare repose trust. And unless you have the warrant 
presently, and in the instant to execute, I know the inconvenience 
of the protraction. You shall therefore do very well to observe 
how the warrant is made, and thereby shall you perceive that the 
1 P. R. O., Domestic, James I., vol. 18, n. 19. 



cxcii Life of Father John Gerard. 

party to whomsoever you shall direct it is authorized sufficiently, 
and will receive this warrant from anybody's hands whom you 
shall send ; so as if you will choose any of your own to send it to 
any such gentleman as you shall like, that third party need not 
say he comes from you, but from some other, and yet he may 
bring the gentleman that you shall name upon the back of the 
warrant to execute all things according to your direction. Lastly, 
madam, this I say unto you, that either your religion is very foul, 
or you will make no difficulty to discover such a pernicious 
creature, as differs so far from the rest of the society (as I am 
persuaded) ; wherein I will add thus much further, that you shall 
be an instrument of reflecting His Majesty's good opinion to 
your husband, and confirm the conceit I have of you, that you 
would not trouble yourself and me in this kind unless you meant 
sincerely. And so I commit you to God. From the Court at 
Whitehall, this 15th of January, 1605 [-6]. 

' ' Your ladyship's loving friend, 

" Salisbury. 

" There are only three of your churchmen in this wicked 
predicament, Gerard, Father Walley, and Father Greeneway, so 
as it is indifferent to the State which of these be come by. This 
letter is sent according to your direction to Mr. Stringer, who 
shall receive it from the next post to him, and the packet to the 
post is signed by the postmaster's hand, and not by mine, who 
knoweth not the contents nor anything of you, and yet his hand 
will make the less suspicion. I desire you to keep safe both 
this mine own letter and the warrant, because I may have both 
delivered again hereafter, if there be no cause continuing to use 
them hereafter, and I will do the like with your letter, which I 
reserve for you." 

Endorsed — " To the Lady Markham." 

The " certain high personages " with whom he crossed the 

Channel were the Ambassadors of Spain and Flanders. 1 It 

is remarkable that, though Topcliffe had said that Father 

Gerard intended " to pass over rather after than with the Lord 

1 Bartoli, Inghilterra, p. 586. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxciii 

Ambassador," his conspicuous person should have been allowed 
to pass. 

On reaching the Continent in safety, after recovering from the 
illness brought on by his fatigues and anxieties, 1 he went, as he 
tells us, straight to Rome, whence, we learn from Father More, 2 he 
was sent to Tivoli for awhile, for rest of mind and body. He was 
then appointed English Penitentiary in the Basilica of St. Peter, 3 
and this was his field of work till the spring of 1611. 4 

We have a letter, 5 dated "this Simon and Jude's daie, 1606," 
from Father Andrew Whyte, afterwards the Apostle of Maryland, 
addressed, " To his especial good friende Mr. Garret geue these 
att Roome." It was to ask him to speak to Father Persons to get 
Richard Green received into the Society, who had been sent to 
College by Father Gerard, and had been imprisoned " about the 
time of this late commotion." Green " was received very kindly " 
by Father Walley [Garnett] " and provided for very charitably in a 
manner as one of the Society, with a promise that the year follow- 
ing he should be received without fail;" but now, as "few or 
none of Father Walley's writings or determinations were found, 
and Richard Fulwood gone which should have given particular 
testimony," Father Whyte begs that "he may either be sent to 
the Novitiates of other countries with the license of the General, 
or else may have a promise to be next that is received at 
Louvain." 



XXVIII. 

To this Novitiate at Louvain we now turn, as it was thither that 
Father Gerard was next sent. It was the foundation of Dona 
Luisa de Carvajal, who by her will dated Valladolid, Dec. 22, 
1604, left 12,000 ducats for the establishment of an English 
Novitiate. The document is an admirable specimen of true 
Spanish devotion and humility. After commending her soul to 

1 See his letter and those of Father Baldwin, p. cclvii. 

2 Hist. Prov., lib. vii., n. 43, p. 339. 

3 Archives of the English College at Rome, Scritture, vol. 30; 1632. 

4 Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's Miscell. de Coll. Attgl., p. 19. 

5 Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iii., n. 70. 

6 More, Hist. Prov., lib. vii., cap. 3, p. 291. 



cxciv Life of Father John Gerard, 

God by the intercession of our Blessed Lady, she proceeds — 
" For the love of God I humbly pray the Superiors of the Society 
of Jesus and the Propositus of the Professed House, as a favour, 
to grant me some little place in their church where my body may 
be buried, in consideration of the devotion I have ever enter- 
tained for their holy Religious Order : to which Order, in the 
manner that I have thought would be most to the glory of God, 
I offer, with the greatest affection, a gift which, though but small, 
is all that I have. And if a burial-place be refused me in that 
church, my executors will obtain for me a resting-place in some 
other church of the Society : and if they are unable to obtain this, 
let me be buried in some monastery in which, for the love of 
God, they may be willing to give burial to a poor person like 
myself; and let my funeral be conducted in accordance with this 
my poverty. As executors I name Father Richard Walpole, 
the Vice-Prefect of the English Mission, and the Confessor of the 
English College in this city, or their successors. After them (and 
I have named them first from respect to their priestly dignity) I 
name the Condessa de Miranda, Dona Maria de Zuniga, Dona 
Maria Gasca, Don Frances de Contreras, Melchior de Molina, 
and Don Luis de Carrillo e Toledo, Conde de Caracena. First 
of all I declare that many years ago, when I was with my uncle, 
I made a vow to God to dedicate all my goods to His glory and 
greatest service. Then His Divine Majesty gave me large desires 
and vehement attraction to spend myself above all things for the 
preservation and advancement of the English Fathers of the 
Society of Jesus, who sustain that kingdom like strong columns, 
defend it from an otherwise inevitable ruin, and supply efficacious 
means of salvation for thousands and thousands of souls. Where- 
fore I offer them to the most holy Virgin our Lady, I place them 
under her protection, and I name and leave her universal heir of 
all my goods. . . . And I give possession of them henceforward 
to the most glorious Virgin, and in her name and place to Father 
Robert Persons, or failing him, to the Father who shall succeed 
him as Superior of the Mission : but with this condition and 
obligation, that such goods shall be applied to the founding of a 
Novitiate of English Religious of the Society of Jesus, in whatever 
kingdom or part of the world shall seem to Father Persons to be 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxcv 

to the greater glory of God. But in the case that England shall 
be brought back to the faith and obedience of the Roman Church, 
my will is that the said revenue be transferred into that kingdom, 
for the foundation of a Novitiate of the Society there, unless it 
shall seem better to Father Persons, for reasons concerning the 
Catholic religion, to leave the Novitiate beyond the kingdom." 

Time was not lost in carrying out the intentions of this pious 
benefactress. 1 In 1606, Father Persons obtained possession of 
a large house in Louvain, which had been inhabited by the 
Knights of Malta, and thus came to be called St. John's, though 
the church attached to it was dedicated to St. Gregory the Apostle 
of England and other Saints. Father More, who lived there with 
Father Gerard, tells us that it was on high ground commanding 
the whole city; below was a walled garden, and on the slope of 
the hill pleasant walks amongst the vines which were ranged in 
terraces, and the whole, though within the city walls, as quiet and 
calm as befitted a house of prayer. 

We do not know exactly the date of Father Gerard's arrival at 
Louvain, or the office to which he was first appointed there. The 
letter of the 17th August, 161 2, to the General, from which we 
have already given a large extract concerning Mrs. Vaux, is dated 
from Louvain. It proceeds with an account of a miraculous cure 
at the intercession of Father Thomas Garnett, the nephew of the 
Provincial, who was martyred at Tyburn on the 3rd of June, 1608. 
This father was the first Novice of St. John's, Louvain. That 
Noviceship commenced in February, 1607, with six Priests, two 
Scholastics, and five Lay-brothers, Novices, under Father Thomas 
Talbot as their Novice Master. In 16 14, St. John's received 
students in philosophy and theology, as well as Novices, when a 
house in the garden was fitted up for the Novitiate and Father 
Henry Silisdon was installed in St. John's as Rector of the new 
College. This arrangement did not last long, for at the end of 
the year the Novitiate was transferred to Liege. No less than 
fifteen letters have come down to us written by Father Gerard 
in the year 16 14, addressed to the Prefect of the English Mission, 
Father Thomas Owen, Rector of the English College at Rome. 
They treat chiefly of the purchase of the new house at Liege, 
1 More, Hist. Prov., lib. viii., n. 8, p. 355. 



cxcvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

and the transfer of the Novitiate to that city. Some extracts 
relating to Father Gerard himself will be found interesting. 
Some of them are signed John Nelson and others John Tomson. 
In later years he seems to have been known only by the name 
of Tomson. 

The choice of Liege as a residence seems to have been 
mainly owing to the disquiet caused to the Catholics in the 
Low Countries by the remonstrances of the English Govern- 
ment. We have some specimens of it in the following 
extracts, in which we find Father Gerard true to the natural 
fearlessness of his character. "Concerning 1 my wariness in 
avoiding the eyes of spies, I have been all this year more 
sparing in that kind than divers friends here did think needful, 
although some one or two did think it dangerous to go any 
journey, as doubting I might be killed by the way, but this was 
but according to their accustomed fears with which I have been 
long acquainted. But, indeed, Father, I am so far from desire 
to go many journeys, that it is a pain to me to think of going 
anywhither, and the reason why I never went to any of those 
places your Reverence mentioneth in this year past (but only the 
last Lent to Maclin for Mr. Rouse) was not that I thought it 
dangerous (being known so well to live here public that it cannot 
be unknown to any spies), nor for that I wanted leave, for I had 
the other Provincial's particular and willing grant, without my own 
asking, to go to any place of these countries ; but it was because 
I had rather be at home : and in the town of Lovaine itself, I go 
not abroad half so much as I think were needful for the content- 
ment of others. I was not at the Teresians, where the Mother of 
the House (to whom I gave the Exercise four years ago) and 
Father Scott's 2 sister do much desire my often coming, any more 
than once since the last Lent. At the Monastery of St. Monica's, 
my cousin Shurley hath requested my coming thither for these 
three or four months, to bestow one afternoon upon her and 
some younger Nuns whom she hath charge of, that they may 
altogether ask me what spiritual questions they may like best, 

1 Stonyhurst MSS., AngL A., vol. iv., n. 5. 

2 This is Father Thomas Laithwaite, also called Kensington (More, Hist. 
Prov.y lib. ix., n. 1, p. 391 ; supra p. clxxvi). 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxcvii 

and I have never yet found a fit time for it; and, indeed, I 
doubt I am to blame for it. The gentlemen in the town 1 I 
doubt I visit not once in a quarter of a year, and I have some 
reason to think that either they think me careless of them, or 
afraid to be seen abroad, as though my case were very dangerous, 
which would also make them or any other that should come to 
town more fearful to come into my company, and consequently 
hinder the little good that I might do with them. But I hope I 
shall be as wary as your Reverence wisheth, and if this course go 
forwards of being Rector without the name of Rector, there will 
be less inconvenience, whosoever see me seeing me still as a 
private man." In this he alludes to a plan of his own, that 
Father Blackfan should have the title of Rector, although he 
himself had been appointed to the Rectorship of the Novitiate. 

The next letter is dated April 6, 1614. 2 "I have yours of 
the 15 th March, and see in that, as in all of yours, your fatherly 
care of me, which, by the grace of God, I will labour to deserve. 
I am well satisfied with Father General's order, and shall endea- 
vour to get this building finished for the Novitiate as soon as 
I can, and then will settle to my book as much as my health 
and letters will permit. . . . Having writ thus far, I was 
called to go to Bruxels with Father Rector (by Father Blacfan's 
and Father Percy his advice) to speak with the Duke's' Secretary, 
who telling Father Percy the last week that the Agent did solicit 
against me, and that he could not well answer him, unless he 
delivered him some reasons in writing for my innocency, this 
writing was promised him by Father Percy; but I being loath 
to have any such writing sent, as thinking it the likeliest means 
to raise a new persecution against me, though for the Secretary's 
satisfaction we drew and delivered him a brief note of four or 

1 In 16 1 7, Sir Thomas Leeds was Prefect and Sir Ralph Babthorpe 
Secretary of the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin at Louvain (Stonyhurst 
MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 47). A considerable number of Catholic families 
had settled in Louvain, and in 16 r4 they were disturbed by a summons to 
appear in England under pain of losing their possessions. On a remonstrance 
being made by the Spanish Ambassador, King James disclaimed the summons, 
on which the magistrates of Louvain expelled the pursuivant from the town 
(More, Hist. Prov., lib. ix., n. 10, p. 406). 

2 Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 6. 

3 The Archduke Albert, Governor of Flanders. 



cxcviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

five effectual proofs, yet both to the Secretary first, and after- 
wards to the Nuncio, I told this day that if any such writing were 
sent it would do me great harm, for Canterbury having such a 
writing would doubtless show it at the Council table, and then 
those lords who secretly do know me to be innocent, and wish 
me well, will be, as it were, forced to speak against me, lest 
they should seem to favour me, and so the King should be 
more incensed. The Nuncio did promise Father Rector and 
me that he would seriously deal both with the Secretary and 
the Prince himself in the cause." 

Writing under date April 18, 1614, 1 he shows that he thinks 
that too much importance had been given to the Agent's inter- 
ference. " I think your Reverence was made to believe by 
letters sent about Easter, that there was some new troubles 
against me here, out of England, and consequently that there was 
need of such information to the Nuncio and Father Provincial 
as had been given. But when I heard of it, I said it was nothing 
but Trumbol his own device, in hope to work upon the weakness 
of the Prince; and so now it proves, for I am going to the 
Secretary himself with our Father Rector, as I wrote from 
Bruxells, and giving him a paper of some few points for my 
innocency, with the request he would not deliver it, but show 
it if he would to the Agent. The Secretary answered he would 
advertise me if it were needful ; but since the note was showed 
unto Trumbol, and he showed to be satisfied with it, and 
afterwards meeting the Secretary told him that he took it to 
be only matter of religion; but that being now made matter 
of State, he, being a servant employed in matter of State, could 
not but seek to concur with them that employed him, as it were 
granting that himself was satisfied, and yielding a reason why he 
had moved the matter. And this being understood both by the 
Prince and the Nuncio, they were very glad of it. . . . I 
write this from Maclin, whither Sir William [Stanley] was desirous 
to have me come for his comfort now and after the death and 
funeral of his lady." 

But such a man as Father Gerard was not likely to be left in 
peace in those intriguing times. In the August following, Father 
1 Stonyhurst MSS. } Angl A. } vol. iv., n. 7. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cxcix 

Silisdon writes to Father Owen. 1 "Even now I have advice 
that His Majesty of England hath made two complaints to the 
Prince, and that the first is against Father Gerard's being in his 
dominions." The consequence was that a transfer to another 
territory became desirable, and Father Gerard set his heart on 
migrating with his Novices to Liege. He writes from that city, 
under the signature of John Nelson, Sept. 19, 1614. 2 "There 
be many causes to be alleged why here, rather than in any 
place; as the commodity of dealing with our English in the 
summer, the opportunity of keeping our Novices unknown, the 
excellent seat far beyond Lovaine, and that bestowed on us, 
the present helps sent for this beginning, with great likelihood 
of much more; the great favour which is to be expected from 
this Prince and his family, and is to be strengthened by my two 
cousins, Sir William and Mr. Morton, and Sir William hath 
written to him that he doth much joy in his cousin who is 
there to be Rector." The two cousins of whom Father Gerard 
here speaks were two very powerful friends. The one was 
Sir William Stanley, who showed himself a kind friend to Father 
Gerard and his charge by negotiating the purchase of the 
property at Liege in his own name, and advancing the purchase 
money — at least, that portion of it which had to be paid 
down 3 — probably (as Father Gerard speaks of the " seat being 
bestowed upon us") regarding it as a gift. Whatever else was 
requisite for the purchase was provided by Brother William 
Browne, who, though 4 grandson, brother, and uncle of Viscounts 
Montague, — his grandfather was Queen Mary's Ambassador to 
the Holy See — was himself content to spend his life in the 
humble duties of a Jesuit Lay-brother. 

The "Mr. Morton" was Sir George Talbot of Grafton, after- 



1 Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 17. 

2 Ibid., n. 22. 

3 Father Gerard bought a house and ten acres of land ; and the price was 
less than "200/. in present money and the rent of 30/. with which the house 
and grounds are already charged, which then we may redeem by little and 
little, as we get friends to buy it out 1 ' (Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., 
n. 23). As the rent could be redeemed at fifteen years' purchase, the whole 
price was thus under 650/. 

4 More, Hist. Prov., lib. ix., n. 11, p. 406. 



cc Life of Father John Gerard. 

wards ninth Earl of Shrewsbury. He was a scholar of some repute, 1 
and an intimate friend of Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. As 
Ferdinand, the Prince-Bishop of Liege, was Maximilian's brother, 
it was no little help to Father Gerard to be on "cousinly" terms 
with George Talbot. The Duke became a generous benefactor 
to the new House at Liege. In 1618 he sent Father Gerard, 
through Sir George Talbot, 5,000 florins for the Noviceship. 2 
In a letter dated Jan. 25, 1620, the Duke writes to Father 
Gerard, who had promised to pray that he might have a son : 
"I bound myself once by vow to your Blessed Ignatius, that 
if he would obtain this favour for me, I would give my son the 
name of Ignatius, and would build and endow a College of 
the Society wherever Father General might judge it most useful. 
What if God should purpose thus to provide for you?" 3 In 
July of the same year he wrote : " We have sent you a contri- 
bution of 1,300 German florins by Father Mayer for a tabernacle 
for the Blessed Sacrament, and for a niche for an image of the 
Blessed Virgin." Even after Father Gerard's departure from 
the House, Duke Maximilian's liberality to it did not fail. 
Father Silisdon, Father Gerard's successor as Master of Novices, 
removed the Novitiate to Watten, 4 and not long after the Duke 
settled a permanent endowment upon the College of Liege, 
which was begun in the House that Father Gerard had estab- 
lished. 

Father Gerard's Socius or "Compagnion," as he calls him, 

1 "Sir Basil Brooke telletli that our German friend is very well at his 
house, and in protection of the King, that Canterbury has used him very 
kindly, and entreated him, as one whose scholarship is famous, to make use 
of his library [as] it shall please him." Father Silisdon to Father Owen, 
August 25, 1614. Endorsed by Father Owen — "Sir Geo. Talbott well 
entertained by K. and Cant." (Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 17). 

2 More, Hist. Prov,, lib. ix., n. 15, p. 414. 

3 Ibid., pp. 415, 424. Maximilian had two sons by his second wife, Mary 
Anne of Austria, when he was over 60 years of age, and the eldest he named 
Ignatius. 

4 The Priory of Watten, with its revenue of 3000 florins of Brabant, was 
transferred to the Society in 161 1 by James Blase, O.S.F., Bishop of St. 
Omers. The proposal had been approved of by the King of Spain in 1604, 
and by Pope Paul V. in 1607, but the jealousy of the English felt by the 
Archduke Albert delayed the establishment of an English Novitiate there till 
his death in 1622 (More, Hist. Prov., lib. vii., ma. 5—7, lib. ix., 11. 17, 
pp. 294 — 298, 416). 



• Life of FatJier John Gerard. cci 

was Father Henry More, subsequently the historian of the 
Province. When discussing, before his appointment, those 
Fathers who were fitted for that office, after mentioning others, he 
says: "Father Nicholson is far short of either of them for my turn, 
for he is no good Latinist, I think little better than myself, though 
he be much better scholar \ neither hath he any other language 
but Spanish, of which I shall have small use. Father Henry 
More hath French well, Dutch prettily, and Italian sufficiently, 
besides Spanish very well, and Latin as I would wish him." 1 

As to his first Novices, he had twelve, which made what he 
styled "a pretty beginning." 2 They were "the two that expect 
at Liege, the two that are come from Rome, and four out of 
Spain, with Mr. Lewkner and Mr. Whitmore, besides Grafton, 
when he comes, and a tailor now servant in this house, who by 
all judgments here is as fit to be received as Brother Silvester, 
the young tailor now in the Noviceship, is fit to be dismissed." 3 

Of the two that " expected at Liege," a previous letter had 
said, "Here be also Mr. Mansel and Mr. Owen Shelley, by the 
names of Mr. Griffin and Mr. Titchborn : both expect, the first 
with some loathness to stay long, the second is wholly resigned. 
The first is a pious man, and to those that know his fashion 
will be profitable for some uses in the Society, but the second 
will be practical and fit for anything, and in truth I think he 
will do very well." 4 This Father Owen Shelley was afterwards 
Rector of the College of Liege, and justified Father Gerard's 
judgment of his character. 

Amongst the "four which are come out of Spain" were 
two that must have constantly served to remind their Rector 
at Liege of the Gunpowder Plot, as the remonstrances of King 
James' Agent had managed to do at Louvain. " One of them," 
he says, "is akin to Father Garnett, and of his name, though 
we call him Gilford, as he was called at St. Omers. William 
Ellis, but we call him John Williams, for he was page 5 to Sir 

1 Stonykurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 20. 

2 They soon increased in numbers, for in 161 7 Father More says there was 
a Community at Liege of 45, of whom 30 were Novices (p. 424). 

3 Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 29. 

4 Ibid., n. 23. 

5 Infra p. no. 

n 



ccii Life of Father John Gerard. 

Everard Digby, and taken with him, though he might have 
escaped, for his master offered him horse and money to shift 
for himself, but the youth said he would live and die with him ; 
and so, being taken, was condemned at Stafford, and should 
have been executed. He was offered to have his life if he 
would go to their church, which he refused. In the end they 
saved him and some others. He never [yielded] in the least 
point. He hath good friends near Sir Everard Digby's whom 
I know, and he is heir to 80/. a year, if his father do him right." 1 
At the close of this short notice of Father Gerard's Rectorship 
it will be but right to record an unfavourable judgment passed 
upon him, as it will help us to form a true appreciation of his 
character. It is the only instance that has come down to us 
of blame on the part of one of his own brethren. "I see a 
general fear in all ours, those of best judgment, of the success 
of Father Nelson's government, and unless he hath a companion 
that may moderate him, his zeal will, I fear, carry him too far; 
and I fear it so much the more because I see him loath to have 
anybody with him who is likely to propose anything to him 
contrary to his own zealous desires." This is in a confidential 
letter 2 from Father Silisdon to Father Owen, dated Oct. 31, 
1 6 14, so that, as it was written before the transfer to Liege, it 
was a misgiving lest he should be indiscreet as a Rector, rather 
than a judgment on his actual conduct as a Superior. 

XXIX. 

During his residence at Liege, amongst Father Gerard's corres- 
pondents were two venerable servants of God, Robert Cardinal 
Bellarmine, and Father Luis de la Puente, better known by the 
Latinized form of his name, de Ponte. As by a man's friends we 
can obtain an insight into his character, we have thought it 
desirable to give the few letters from these two holy men to 
Father Gerard that have come down to us. Cardinal Bellarmine^ 
autograph is preserved at Stonyhurst. 3 We translate the letter 
from the original Latin. 

1 Stonyhurst, MSS., Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 29. 

2 Ibid., n. 31. 

3 Ibid., vol. iii., n. 107. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cciii 

" Very Rev. and beloved Father in Christ, — I have received 
your Reverence's letter dated from Liege the 23rd November, 
with the little presents inclosed in it, an English knife, a little 
case (either bone or ivory, I do not know which), and three small 
toothpicks. I do not know whether these were sent me for use, 
or as having some special meaning. Whichever it be they were 
welcome, as a proof of friendship and brotherhood. 

" The memory of that excellent Mr. Oliver, 1 whose acquaint- 
ance I made very late, has brought me no little sadness, or rather 
grief, not on his account, who is translated from this world to the 
joys of Paradise, but for the sake of many whom without doubt 
he would have converted to a good life if Divine Providence had 
permitted him to live awhile longer. But the good pleasure of 
God must ever be fulfilled, and the very same, in order that 
it may be fulfilled, must ever be pleasing to us under all 
circumstances. 

" I was pleased to read what your Reverence relates in your 

1 This would appear to be a mention of the death of the "son and 
brother of an Earl," Sir Everard Digby's great friend, who was converted 
when holding some office in personal attendance on King James, and, 
after his conversion, received the King's leave to go to Italy {supra 
p. clxvi.). The intermediate link is furnished in Father Gerard's letter to 
Father Aquaviva, Lou vain, August 17, 1612 (Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., 
vol. hi., n. in). "Now at length our friend Oliver has passed over from 
Paris to England, for the Treasurer is gone, his and all good men's 
enemy:" [Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, died May 24, 1612] "and 
others are about to succeed him, who, as we hope, entertain for Oliver an 
ancient and particular affection. Besides, his eldest brother is dead, and the 
second brother left inheritor of all the honours and wealth, so that a manifold 
occasion is offered to this our friend of helping himself in temporal affairs, and 
others to some extent in spiritual and greater goods. Summoned by his family 
he has left in haste, humbly asking your Paternity's benediction ; in the efficacy 
of which he disregards all that heretical fury or perverse malice can invent 
against him. The King is going this summer to his brother the new Earl's 
castle, to remain there awhile for hunting. Perhaps Oliver will take that 
occasion of presenting himself to the King, who liked him when he was 
in his service before he entered the service of God, and whom he has never 
offended in anything, except in choosing to be an abject in the House of God, 
rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of men." We have here the necessary 
data for determining that the convert in question was Sir Oliver Manners, 
fourth son of John fourth Earl of Rutland, knighted at Belvoir Castle, 
April 22, 1603, by James I. on his coming from Scotland. The eldest brother 
Roger, fifth Earl, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Philip Sidney, and died 
without issue, June 26, 1612, when he was succeeded by his brother Francis. 



cciv Life of Father John Gerard. 

letter of your journeys; of your office of Master of Novices; of 
the building which you have bought at Liege ; of the visitation of 
His Serene Highness Ferdinand, the Prince-Bishop of Liege, and 
of the promise that the Priory, at its next vacancy, shall be 
applied to the College. If my assistance in carrying this out can 
be of any use to you with the Pope, it shall not be wanting. 

" Of Dr. Singleton I have heard much, and have defended 
him to the best of my power, as long as I could, but the party 
opposed to him has prevailed. Nor do I see how I can help him 
at so great a distance, and especially as I should be suspected, 
because I am a Jesuit. The devil is envious of the harmony 
between the English at Douay and the Fathers of the Society, for 
which the good Cardinal Allen cared so much; but all means 
must be tried to re-establish a true and sincere friendship, and 
agreement in teaching; otherwise a kingdom divided against itself 
shall be brought to desolation. For many reasons I say freely that 
nothing can be done by me in his behalf; first, as I was just sayings 
because I should be under suspicion, being a Jesuit. Then 
because I am an old man of seven-and-seventy years of age, and 
I daily expect the dissolution of my tabernacle. Thirdly, because 
I cannot think of any manner in which I could help him. The 
common way of helping men of this sort is to give them ecclesi- 
astical benefices, but here in Rome the multitude of those who 
aspire to and seek after such benefits is so great that their 
number is almost infinite. Nor are they only Italians, but 
Spaniards also, Frenchmen, Germans, who look for nothing but 
benefices at Rome. I myself, who was thought to have some 
influence with the Pope, have laboured for more than ten years 
for a Spaniard, an excellent man and a great friend of mine, to 
obtain for him a good benefice falling vacant in his own country. 
I could say the same of Flemish and German friends of mine. 
What then would be the case with English people, in whose 
country there are no ecclesiastical benefices for Catholics ? But, 
since these temporal things are nothing when compared to eternal 
benefices, our friend Dr. Singleton must not be cast down if our 
Lord treats him now, as of old He treated His Apostles, who 
He willed should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven through 
many tribulations. But I must not be too lengthy, for I know 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccv 

that both he and your Reverence stand in no need of my exhor- 
tations. I know that your Reverence will have hard work to 
read my bad writing, but Father Coffin 1 would have it that I 
should write to you with my own hand. 

"With this I bid your Reverence farewell. Commend me to 
the prayers of Dr. Singleton, and of all your College; but your 
Reverence's self especially, for our old friendship and brotherhood, 
must diligently commend me to the Lord our God. 

"From Rome, on Christmas Day, December 25, 1618. 2 

" Your Reverence's brother and servant in Christ, 

"Robert Card. Bellarmine. 

"To the Very Rev. Father John Tomson, S.J., 

" Rector of the College of the English Novices at Liege." 

The two letters which have come down to us, addressed to 
Father Gerard by the venerable Father Luis de la Puente, were 
written just as his residence 3 at Liege was drawing to a close. 
We translate from Father Grene's transcript of the originals. 4 

" I. H. S. 

"P.G 

" When I received your Reverence's letters, I was unable to 
answer them at once, for I was suffering from extreme weakness, 
which usually afflicts me every year all through the winter. 
Blessed be our great God, from Whose providence come health 
and sickness, life and death, and whatever prosperity and adversity 
there is in this world. The height of felicity in this life is to be 

1 Father Edward Coffin was Confessor of the English College for nearly 
twenty years. He was succeeded by Father Gerard, who held the same office 
for the last fifteen years of his life. 

2 Dr. Oliver has misread this date 161 1. Cardinal Bellarmine was born 
October 4, 1542, so that he would be in his seventy-seventh year in 1618-9. 

3 Dr. Oliver says that Father Silisdon succeeded Father Gerard as Rector 
and Master of Novices in 1620, and transferred the Novitiate to Watten in 
1622. Father More {Hist. Prov., p. 416) may certainly so be understood, 
but it is clear from the Floras Anglo- Bavaricus (p. 11) that Father Gerard 
was Rector in March, 1622, and that the transfer to Watten took place in 
1625. And in the Archives of the English College at Rome (Scritiure, vol. 30), 
in a notice of him written in 1632, he is said to have been Rector of the English 
Noviceship at Liege for eight years. 

4 Stonyhurst MSS., P., vol. ii., f. 532. 



ccvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

superior to all these things, seeking only God's good pleasure in 
all things, for life in His will, and health, honour, happiness, 
spiritual progress, and all sanctity consist in the fulfilment of 
the will of God : and so every day I would that at every breath I 
could say, May Thy most holy and most sweet will be done in 
me, concerning me, and by me and about me, in all things and 
by all things, now and always and for ever. Amen. 1 God always 
pours His spirit of prayer into those who so submit their will to 
His; wherefore the Psalmist says — 'Be subject unto the Lord 
and pray to Him,' for when any one with prompt obedience and 
entire resignation humbly submits himself to God, God Himself, 
Who does the will of those that fear Him, in a certain way is 
made subject to him, so that He does whatever is asked, God 
becoming obedient to the voice of a man — not of any man soever, 
but of the man who obeys God. Oh, wonderful power of prayer 
and of obedience ! Let us pray, my Father, that we may be 
perfectly obedient, and let us obey, that we may be able to pray, 
and to speak worthily with God. 

" It will help wonderfully both one and the other, to meditate 
profoundly on these two things : to wit, Who God is in Himself, 
and what He is towards us, and then what we are of ourselves, 
and what towards God. For whilst I think of God, His Trinity 
and Unity, most beautiful, most wise, most holy, most full 
of love for me, immense and everywhere present, the fountain of 
all good things that are in me and beyond me, from Whom I 
myself depend, and all that is mine, and everything that I use 
and enjoy, how can I do otherwise than love Him with all my 
strength? How shall I not praise Him and thank Him con- 
stantly? How shall I not give my whole self to His service ? 
And these affections become the more ardent as I ponder that I 
have nothing of myself; that I am nothing, and that I and all 
that is mine would be reduced to nothing unless I were preserved 
by Him. Now whilst, within this immensity of God, I consider 
what I have been and what I am towards Him, I am horrified 
and tremble as I ponder on my malice, my ingratitude, my sloth- 

1 Fiat in me, de me et per me, et circa me, sanctissima et dulcissima 
voluntas Tua, in omnibus et per omnia, nunc et semper ac in externum. 
Amen (MS.). 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccvii 

fulness. Hence arise feelings of hatred of self, of humiliation 
and self-denial, and various acts and exercises of penance, which 
not only nourish humility by which a man, through a truthful 
knowledge of himself, becomes vile to himself, but they also 
arouse a most ardent charity by which he loves his Supreme 
Benefactor, Who has conferred and still confers so many and 
such great benefits on one who is ungrateful and unworthy. Thus 
the mind is elevated to perfect contemplation and union with 
God Himself, and, as it were forgetful of itself, is immersed 
in Him, or rather God hides it in the concealment of His 
countenance from all disturbance of men." 

The holy writer, after modestly excusing himself for sending 
this " short epitome of his mystical theology " to " a doctor of 
others and his own master," adds, " I value very highly the 
cross which you have sent me, and I will always bear it with 
me. I hope, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, who 
appeared in that tree, and who confers such benefits on those 
who are there and those who visit her, that I may be a partaker 
of those benefits, for though I am absent in the body I am 
present in spirit." This refers most probably to the wood of 
the tree in which was found the image of our Lady of Foy, 1 
a village in the Province of Namur. 

This letter is dated from Valladolid, March 23, 162 1. Another 
from the same place, of the 2nd of February following, was written 
by Father de la Puente in reply to one from Father Gerard 
announcing that he was leaving Belgium. 

" May the Almighty and most pitiful Lord accompany you in 
the journey that you begin, for with such a Guide and Companion 
you will be everywhere safe and cheerful, and making true progress. 
Let Him ever dwell in your memory, understanding, and will, for 
His most sweet providence especially protects those who make their 
journeys from obedience to Superiors, as Jacob did, who at his 
father's bidding journeyed through the desert into Mesopotamia, 
where he heard the voice of the Lord, which said to him, ' I will 

1 Father Gerard sent from Rome an attestation dated July 16, 1633, to 
testify that he had had three images made of this wood, that he left one at 
Liege, took one to Ghent, which he gave to the English Benedictinesses there, 
and gave the third to Anne Countess of Arundel, who, it seems, gave it to the 
House at Watten. This paper is in the Archives de l'Etat, Brussels. 



ccviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

be thy Keeper whithersoever thou goest' Trusting to this hope, 
and protected by this guardianship, you will happily fulfil what you 
have begun. I commend myself to your Reverence's Sacrifices 
and prayers, for my weakness oppresses me much ; but may the 
will of God be done in me and about me in all things and by all 
things, to Whom concerning all things be glory for ever. Amen." 
He was first sent to Spain, then to Rome, which he reached 
Jan. 15, 1623. 1 He returned to Belgium apparently soon after, 
and was for four years Rector of the English House at 
Ghent, and Instructor of the Fathers in their Third Probation. 2 
In July, 1624, he had the happiness of reconciling on his 
death bed James Lord Maltravers, the grandson of the muni- 
ficent foundress of the Tertianship at Ghent, Anne Countess of 
Arundel. 3 For the last ten years of his life Father Gerard was 
Confessor to the English College in Rome. That his activity 
and zeal continued to the last is shown by his correspondence 4 
with the spiritual child of his old age, Father Francis Slingsby, 
who subsequently entered the Society, and died in the odour of 
sanctity at Naples, Dec. 6, 1642. It is very touching to read the 
mutual expressions of warm affection that passed between these 
two holy souls. Two long letters written by Father Gerard to 
Slingsby are signed " Thomas Roberts," and are dated March 2 
and May 16, 1637, the latter but two months before his death. 
The " shaking hand," as he himself calls it, is the only sign of 
weakness they show. He was then, it seems, writing a book on 
" friendship," and had sent another book to Flanders for publi- 
cation. Father Gerard's last Retreat was made in the beginning 
of February, and in the "Spiritual Exercise " that was so familiar 
to him, he had received, he tells his dearest friend, "from the 
goodness of God more comfort than he deserved." He died at 
Rome in the English College, July 27, 1637, at the ripe age of 
seventy-three and upwards. 

1 Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's Miscell. de Coll. Angl., p. 19, quoting 
"Baines his diary." 

2 Bibl. Scriptorum, S.J., by F. Nath. Southwell, p. 453. 

3 Life of Anne Countess of 'Arundel \ by the Duke of Norfolk, 1857, p. 232. 

4 This collection of letters, which was in Rome in Father Grene's time, 
has found its way to the Burgundian Library at Brussels, MSS. 3824, 5. See 
note, p. cclxiii. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccix 



XXX. 

In this Autobiography Father Gerard has laid before us his life in 
all the freedom and unreserve of a confidential communication 
with his Religious brethren and Superiors. It is not possible, we 
are convinced, for any impartial person to rise from its perusal 
without a deep conviction that Father Gerard was a gentleman 
and a Christian, a man of honour and religious principle ; and in 
many cases this sense of his integrity will be accompanied with 
some of that personal regard and affection with which he inspired 
those who lived in intimacy with him. He bore too much for 
principle, and made too great sacrifices, for us to think that he 
would deliberately and perseveringly commit sin to free himself 
from blame. Yet this is the supposition that is involved in an 
attack upon his veracity in the compilation of his Narrative of the 
Gunpowder Plot. 

It is quite true that he, and many others, considered them- 
selves justified, when their own lives or those of innocent persons 
were at stake, in the use of assertions that were simple falsehoods 
in the ordinary sense of the terms employed. These they called 
equivocations ; and we find no trace in the period of which we 
are writing of the modern sense of the word, that is, of a true 
expression which is really beside the point, though it is so 
employed that it is very unlikely to be seen to be so by the 
person to whom it is addressed, who thus is said rather to be 
suffered to deceive himself than to be deceived. Practically the 
distinction is hard to draw, and it has the disadvantage of 
seeming to make the morality of the expression depend on the 
quickness and readiness of the person in danger, who may be 
able to think of phrases containing a real ambiguity but which yet 
would throw the hearers off the right scent. 

According to modern feeling, Father Gerard would have been 
quite justified in examining the trees and hedges in search of a 
falcon 1 he had not lost, and inquiring of all he met whether they 
had heard the tinkling of the bird's bells, although it was to 
make them think that he had lost a falcon, in other words, to 
1 Supra p. xxi. 



ccx Life of Father John Gerard, 

deceive them ; but by the same modern feeling he would be 
held to be guilty of a lie when he said that he was the servant 
of a lord in a neighbouring county, though he might, without 
guilt, have worn that lord's livery as a disguise if he could have 
obtained it, which would have been a more effectual deception 
than any words. 

Again, according to modern judgment, John Lilly would 
be held guilty of a lie when he said 1 of Gerard's books and 
manuscripts, " They are mine ; " but quite guiltless when, 
with the same intention of making the magistrates believe 
him to be a Priest when he was not, he said, " I do not 
say I am a Priest, that is for you to prove." Yet the latter 
expression was far more likely to deceive than the former. 
It was more like what a Priest, under the circumstances, would 
have said. Present feeling would condemn him of a lie for 
saying simply that the books were his, when it would acquit 
him if he had thought of using far more deceptive expressions, 
such as "I am not bound to compromise myself by saying 
whose they are." 

The only difference between modern morality and that on 
which Father Gerard acted was that now-a-days men say, " Have 
recourse to evasions." Then men said, "Say what you like, it is 
their fault if they think it true." It is evident that of the two 
courses of proceeding, the plain-spoken old way is the least open 
to abuse. No one certainly would have recourse to it excepting 
from a well-weighed plea of a sorrowful necessity. Whereas, on 
the other hand, evasions are not startling, and the conscience 
may lay but little stress on the presence or absence of 
justifying circumstances. For it is most necessary to bear 
seriously in mind that all Catholic divines then held, and now 
hold, that to make use of equivocation, excepting under those 
peculiar circumstances that make it lawful, is in itself a sin, and 
thus no escape from the sin of lying. So Father Garnett plainly 
said when on his trial, 2 " As I say it is never lawful to equivocate 
in matters of faith, so also in matters of human conversation, it 
may not be used promiscually or at our pleasure, as in matters of 
contract, in matters of testimony, or before a competent judge, or 
1 Supra p. cxl. 2 Infra p. 244. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxi 

to the prejudice of any third person : in which cases we judge it 
altogether unlawful." 

It is but fair that, in reading the narrative of times when many 
lives hung on successful disguise and concealment, we should 
remember that the modern sense of equivocation was then 
unknown. Protestant moralists have spoken out their minds 
plainly enough on this subject. 

"Great English authors, Jeremy Taylor, Milton, Paley, Johnson, 
men of very distinct sc ools of thought, distinctly say that under 
certain extreme circumstances it is allowable to tell a lie. Taylor 
says : ' To tell a lie for charity, to save a man's life, the life of a 
friend, of a husband, of a prince, of a useful and a public person, 
hath not only been done at all times, but commended by great 
and wise and good men. Who would not save his father's life, at 
the charge of a harmless lie, from persecutors or tyrants?' 
Again, Milton says : * What man in his senses would deny that 
there are those whom we have the best ground for considering 
that we ought to deceive, as boys, madmen, the sick, the intoxi- 
cated, enemies, men in error, thieves ? I would ask, by which of 
the Commandments is lying forbidden? You will say, by the 
ninth. If then my lie does not injure my neighbour, certainly it is 
not forbidden by this Commandment.' Paley says : 'There are 
falsehoods which are not lies, that is, which are not criminal/ 
Johnson: 'The general rule is, that truth should never be 
violated; there must, however, be some exceptions. If, for 
instance, a murderer should ask you which way a man is 
gone.'" 1 

This language would not have been used by Catholics. 
With them the word "lie" signified a simple falsehood; and an 
" equivocation " was a false expression used under such circum- 
stances that if they to whom it was addressed were deceived by it, 

1 Apologia pro Vita sua, by John Henry Newman, D.D. London, 1864, 
p. 418. The reader's attention is earnestly called to Dr. Newman's treatment 
of this subject, both at the page quoted, and in the Appendix, p. 72. To the 
Protestant authors quoted above may be added Mr. Froude {History of Engla7id, 
vol. ii., ch. vi., p. 57, note). " It seems obvious that a falsehood of this sort is 
different in kind from what we commonly mean by unveracity, and has no 
affinity with it. . . . Rahab of Jericho did the same thing which Dalaber 
did" [a Protestant, who gave false answers and swore to them, to save Garret, 
his fellow] " and on that very ground was placed in the catalogue of Saints." 



ccxii Life of Father John Gerard, 

it was their own fault. They had then no right to the truth, and 
even in some cases it would have been a sin to tell them the 
truth. 

In substance, however, though not in form, the doctrine of 
Gerard, Southwell, and Garnett, was the same as that of Taylor, 
Milton, and Johnson. But to confine ourselves to the practice of 
Father Gerard, this doctrine is not necessary for his defence, and 
if his conduct be fairly examined, he will be held, even from 
the modern point of view, to have done no wrong. Protestant 
moralists, as we have seen, permit men under certain circum- 
stances to tell a lie with intent to deceive. And Catholic 
moralists permit under such circumstances assertions which 
would lead the hearers to deceive themselves by neglecting to 
advert to the limit of the speaker's obligation to tell the truth. 
But with regard to Father Gerard's legal interrogations, we may 
waive the question whether they are right or wrong in their 
morality, for we see clearly that he so expressed himself as to 
show that his words were not intended to be believed. 

The real parallel to them, alleged by Gerard himself, as we 
shall shortly see, is the prisoner's usual plea of "Not guilty." This 
is the only form in which the question is now put to a person 
accused. But in those days the question was put over and over 
again, and in every variety of form. To deny was really to plead 
" Not guilty," and if this be lawful once, it was lawful whenever 
they were forced to repeat it. Not only was it a capital offence 
to be a Priest within the realm, but it was high treason to be 
reconciled to the Church, or absolved by a Priest, or to harbour 
or comfort one. Thus the interrogations addressed to prisoners 
were always intended to make them criminate themselves or 
others ; that is, in the one case to cause them to plead guilty, so 
that they might be condemned to death on their own confessions; 
or, in the other case, to force them to become Queen's evidence, 
and be accessory to the infliction upon others of the extremest 
penalties enacted by an unjust law. 

The first instance that occurs in Father Gerard's Life, is that 
when, after his apprehension, on being questioned he declared 
that he was quite unacquainted with the family of the Wisemans, 
and those who were examining him betrayed their informer 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxiii 

by crying out, " What lies you tell ! Did you not say so- 
and-so before such a lady as you read your servant's letter?" 
Then he adds, "But I still denied it, giving them good reasons 
however why, even if it had been true, I could and ought to have 
denied it" 1 

Another time 2 he was confronted with three servants of Lord 
Henry Seymour, who avouched that he had dined with their 
mistress and her sister, the Lady Mary Percy, that it was in Lent, 
and they told how their mistress ate meat, while Lady Mary and 
Father Gerard ate nothing but fish. " Young flung this charge in 
my teeth with an air of triumph, as though I could not help 
acknowledging it, and thereby disclosing some of my acquaint- 
ances. I answered that I did not know the men whom he had 
brought up. 

" ' But we know you,' said they, ? to be the same that was at 
such a place on such a day.' 

" 'You wrong your mistress,' said I, 'in saying so. I, however, 
will not so wrong her.' 

" 'What a barefaced fellow you are ! ' exclaimed Young. 

"'Doubtless,' I answered, 'were these men's statements true. 
As for me, I cannot in conscience speak positively in the i7iatter, for 
reasons that I have often alleged ; let them look to the truth and 
justice of what they say.'" 

A third instance is the interview 3 between Father Gerard and 
the widow Wiseman, in the presence of the Dean of Westminster, 
Topcliffe, and others. "They wanted to see if she recognized 
me. So when I came into the room where they brought me, 
I found her already there. When she saw me coming in with the 
gaolers, she almost jumped for joy; but she controlled herself, 
and said to them : ' Is that the person you spoke of ? I do not 
know him ; but he looks like a Priest.' 

" Upon this she made me a very low reverence, and I bowed 
in return. Then they asked me if I did not recognize her ? 

" I answered : ' I do not recognize her. At the same time, 

you know this is my usual way of answering, and I will never 

mention any places, or give the names of any persons that are 

known to me (which this lady, however, is not); because to do 

1 Supra p. li. 2 Supra p. lxviii. 3 Supra p. lxxxii. 



ccxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

so, as I have told you before, would be contrary both to justice 
and charity.''" 

Lastly, when examined 1 by the Attorney General, after having 
received a letter from Father Garnett, warning him to prepare 
himself for death, and after having freely confessed that he was a 
Priest and a Jesuit, and that he had reconciled others to the Pope, 
and drawn them away from the faith and religious profession 
which was approved in England, " answers," he says himself, 
" which furnished quite sufficient matter for my condemnation, 
according to their laws," and after having denied that he had 
meddled in political matters ; his examination proceeded as 
follows. 

" Hereupon Mr. Attorney kept silence for a time, and then 
he began afresh to ask me what Catholics I knew; did I know 
such-and-such? I answered, 'I do not know them.' And I 
added the usual reasons why I should still make the same 
answer even if I did know them} Upon this, he digressed to 
the question of equivocation, and began to inveigh against 
Father Southwell, because on his trial he denied that he knew 
the woman who was brought forward to accuse him. 3 She 
swore that he had come to her father's house and was received 
there as a Priest; this he positively denied, though he had 
been taken in that house and was found in a hiding-place, 
having been betrayed by this wretched woman. (A dutiful 
daughter truly, who thus betrayed to death both her spiritual 
and her natural father ! Christ our Lord, however, came not 
to send peace, but a sword to divide between the good and 
the bad; and in this case he divided the bad daughter from 
the good parents.) Good Father Southwell, then, though he 
marvelled at the impudence of this miserable wench, yet denied 
what she asserted, and gave good reasons for his denial, well 
knowing and solidly proving that it was not lawful for him 

1 Supra p. cxiv. 

2 Ostendi non esse hoc falsum dicere (MS.). 

3 This was the wretched Anne Bellamy, a young Catholic gentlewoman, 
who for some overbold denunciation of the persecutors was given into the 
custody of the "ruffian Topcliffe, and was so deeply depraved by him, as to be 
brought to the almost incredible infamy of serving as his tool to inveigle and 
betray Priests. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxv 

to do otherwise, lest he should add to the injury of those who 
were already suffering for the Faith, and for charity shown to 
him. Taking this occasion, therefore^ he showed very learnedly 
that it was lawful in some cases, nay, even necessary perhaps, 
to use equivocation; which doctrine he established and con- 
firmed by strong arguments and copious authorities, drawn as 
well from Holy Scripture as from the writings of the Doctors 
of the Church. 

"The Attorney General inveighed much against this, and 
tried to make out that this was to foster lying, and so destroy 
all reliable communications between men, and, therefore, all 
bonds of society. I, on the other hand, maintained that this 
was not falsehood, nor supposed an intention of deceiving, 
which is necessary to constitute a lie, but merely a keeping 
back of the truth, and that where one is not bound to declare 
it : consequently there is no deception, because nothing is refused 
which the other has a right to claim. I showed, moreover, that 
our doctrine did no way involve a destruction of the. bonds of 
society, because the use of equivocation is never allowed in making 
contracts, since all are bound to give their neighbour his due, 
and in making of contracts truth is due to the party contracting. 
It should be remarked also, I said, that it is not allowed to 
use equivocation in ordinary conversation to the detriment of 
plain truth and Christian simplicity, much less in matters properly 
falling under the cognizance of civil authority, 1 since it is not 
lawful to deny even a capital crime if the accused is questioned 
juridically. He asked me, therefore, what I considered a juridical 
questioning. I answered that the questioners must be really 
superiors and judges in the matter under examination; then, the 
matter itself must be some crime hurtful to the common weal, 
in order that it may come under their jurisdiction; for sins 
merely internal were reserved for God's judgment. Again, there 
must be some trustworthy testimony brought against the 
accused ; thus, it is the custom in England that all who are put 

1 In subornata gubernatione Reipublicse (MS.). There is clearly some 
blunder here. Probably we ought to read "subordinate ;" yet, even so, the 
phrase is not very intelligible. We have judged of the sense intended, by 
the context. 



ccxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

on their trial, when first asked by the Judge if they are guilty 
or not, answer, 'Not guilty,' before any witness is brought 
against them, or any verdict found by the jury; and though 
they answer the same way, whether really guilty or not, yet no 
one accuses them of lying. Therefore I laid down this general 
principle, that no one is allowed to use equivocation except in 
the case when something is asked him, either actually or virtually, 
which the questioner has no right to ask, and the declaration of 
which will turn to his own hurt, if he answers according to the 
intention of the questioner. I showed that this had been our 
Lord's practice, and that of the Saints. I showed that it was 
the practice of all prudent men, and would certainly be followed 
by my interrogators themselves in case they were asked about 
some secret sin, for example, or were asked by robbers where 
their money was hid. 

"They asked me, therefore, when our Lord ever made use 
of equivocations; to which I replied, 'When He told His 
Apostles that no one knew the Day of Judgment, not even the 
Son of Man ; and again, when He said that He was not going 
up to the Festival at Jerusalem, and yet He went; yea, and 
He knew that He should go when He said He would not.' 

"Wade here interrupted me, saying, 'Christ really did not 
know the Day of Judgment, as Son of Man.' 

'"It cannot be,' said I, 'that the Word of God Incarnate, 
and with a human nature hypostatically united to God, should 
be subject to ignorance; nor that He Who was appointed 
Judge by God the Father should be ignorant of those facts 
which belonged necessarily to His office; nor that He should 
be of infinite wisdom, and yet not know what intimately con- 
cerned Himself.' In fact, these heretics do not practically admit 
what the Apostle teaches (though they boast of following his 
doctrines), namely, that all the fulness of the Divinity resided 
corporally in Christ, and that in Him were all the treasures of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God. It did not, however, occur 
to me at the moment to adduce this passage of St. Paul." 

In every one of these instances words are carefully introduced 
to show that the denials in question were uttered not with the 
intent of deceiving the hearers (though even that, according to 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxvii 

the grave Protestant authorities recently quoted, would have been 
lawful), nor of allowing them to deceive themselves if they did 
not choose to advert to the circumstances in which the denials 
were made (as Catholic divines would have permitted) ; x but 
avowedly in order that they might not be available as legal 
evidence against the speaker or his friends. 

To Father Gerard's defence of himself it may be as well to 
add that of Father Southwell, 2 who was assailed by Sir Edward 
Coke. 

"The Father would have spoken further on this point [obe- 
dience to the laws] had they not attacked him on another, 

1 Sir Walter Scott's words have been often quoted, and they are fair 
specimens of what an honourable man considers lawful. As they were no 
hasty and unconsidered expressions, they are deserving of insertion in this 
place. Lockhart calls them " a style of equivoque which could never seriously 
be misunderstood." To John Murray Scott wrote: "I give you heartily joy 
of the success of the Tales, although I do not claim that paternal interest in 
them which my friends do me the credit to assign me. I assure you I have 
never read a volume of them until they were printed, and can only join with 
the rest of the world in applauding the true and striking portraits which they 
present of old Scottish manners. I do not expect implicit reliance to be placed 
on my disavowal, because I know very well that he who is disposed not to own 
a work must necessarily deny it, and that otherwise his secret would be at the 
mercy of all who choose to ask the question, since silence in such a case must 
always pass for consent, or rather assent. But I have a mode of convincing 
you that I am perfectly serious in my denial — pretty similar to that by which 
Solomon distinguished the fictitious from the real mother — and that is, by 
reviewing the work, which I take to be an operation equal to that of quartering 
the child. " And, in a letter written two years later, he says : "I own I did 

mystify Mrs. a little about the report you mention; and I am glad to hear 

the finesse succeeded. She came up to me with a great overflow of gratitude 
for the delight and pleasure, and so forth, which she owed to me on account of 
these books. Now, as she knew very well that I had never owned myself the 
author, this was not polite politeness, and she had no right to force me up into 
a corner and compel me to tell her a word more than I chose, upon a subject 
which concerned no one but myself — and I have no notion of being pumped by 
any old dowager Lady of Session, male or female. So I gave in dilatory 
defences, under protestation to add and eik ; for I trust, in learning a new 
slang, you have not forgot the old. In plain words, I denied the charge, and 
as she insisted to know who else could write these novels, I suggested Adam 
Fergusson as a person having all the infonnation and capacity necessary for 
that purpose. But the inference that he was the author was of her own 
deducing ; and thus ended her attempt, notwithstanding her having primed the 
pump with a good dose of flattery" (Lockhart's Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott, 
1844, pp. 338, 389). 

2 We translate partly from Bartoli, Inghilterra, lib. v., c. 9, and partly 
from More, Hist. Prov., lib. v., c. 29. 





ccxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

objecting to him a statement of Anne Bellamy's, who deposed 
that Father Robert had instructed her, that if asked by searchers 
or persecutors if there was a Priest in the house, she could say 
* No,' though she knew there was one : nay, that if asked on oath, 
she could swear there was not. No sooner was this brought out 
than the Judges and officers of the court showed themselves 
highly scandalized, and were for stopping their ears: 1 as if, for- 
sooth, the seeking for Catholic Priests to put them to a traitor's 
death, or force them to apostatize, were a proceeding so clearly 
and so indubitably just, as to make it as clearly and indubitably 
unjust to hide them from such an ordeal, or to deny them to 
their pursuers : nor, indeed, would the harm be confined to the 
cruel execution of the Priest, but with him the whole of the 
family in whose house he was found would be liable to the same 
death of traitors. Coke, therefore, the Attorney General, made 
the most he could of this matter, insisting that such a pernicious 
doctrine tended to destroy all truth, and all reliance of men 
in each other's veracity, and if allowed to prevail, would upset 
all good government. Topcliffe also inveighed against it so 
exorbitantly, that Judge Popham silenced him. Father Robert 
then, as soon as he was allowed to reply, explained briefly what 
he had said to the witness, whose statement was not altogether 
exact, and addressing the Judge, said : 

" ' If you will have the patience to listen to me, I shall be 
able to prove to you from the Holy Scriptures, from the Fathers, 
from theologians, and from reason, that in case a demand is 
made against justice and with the view of doing grievous harm 
to an innocent person, to give an answer not according to the 
intent of the questioner is no offence against either the divine 
law or the natural law. Nay, I will prove that this doctrine in 
no wise threatens the good government of states and kingdoms : 
and that, where the other necessary conditions of an oath are 
present, there is nothing wrong in confirming such an answer in 
that manner. Now I ask you, Mr. Attorney, Supposing the 

1 Father Bartoli here asks us to contrast the pious horror expressed by the 
officials at Father Southwell's doctrine with the fact related by Father Gerard 
{supra p. lxvii. ) of the magistrate Young swearing on the Scriptures to what 
he knew to be false, that Father Southwell had expressed a desire to confer 
with a Protestant minister with the view of abandoning the Catholic faith. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxix 

King of France (which God forbid) were to invade this country 
successfully, and having obtained full possession of this city, were 
to make search for Her Majesty the Queen, whom you knew to 
be hidden in a secret apartment of the palace : supposing, 
moreover, that you were seized in the palace and brought before 
the King, and that he asked you where the Queen was, and 
would receive no profession of ignorance from you except on 
>t>ath : what would you do ? To palter or hesitate is to show 
that she is there : to refuse to swear is equivalent to a betrayal. 
What would you answer ? I suppose, forsooth, you would point 
out the place ! Yet who of all who now hear me would not cry 
out upon you for a traitor? You would then, if you had any 
sense, swear at once, either that you knew not where she was, 
or that you knew she was not in the palace, in order that your 
knowledge might not become instrumental to her harm. Of this 
kind, in fact, was the answer of Christ in the Gospel, when He 
said that concerning the Day of Judgment no one had ac- 
knowledge, neither the Angels in Heaven, nor the Son : that is, 
according to the interpretation of the Fathers, such knowledge 
that He could communicate to others. Now this is the con- 
dition of Catholics in England : they are in peril of their liberty, 
their fortunes, and their lives, if they should have a Priest in 
their houses. How can it be forbidden them to escape these 
evils by an equivocal answer, and to confirm this answer, if 
necessary, by an oath? For in such a case, three things must 
be remembered : first, that a wrong is done unless you swear ; 
secondly, that no one is obliged to answer everybody's questions 
about everything; thirdly, that an oath is always lawful, if made 
with truth, with judgment, and with justice, all which are found 
in this case.' 1 

" He went on to exemplify his position by supposed queries of 
robbers and highwaymen ; but he was interrupted by abuse." 

1 This last consideration applies, of course, not to the general question of 
equivocation (for in that case it would involve a petitio principii), but to the 
sub-question whether supposing a simple equivocation lawful {i.e., allowing it 
to be no violation of veracity in some cases), it could ever be lawful to add 
to it the confirmation of an oath. Father Southwell maintains reasonably, 
that whatever it is lawful to say, it is lawful also to swear to, provided the 
other conditions for an oath are present. 



ccxx Lif of Father yohn Gerard. 

Father Garnett has defended himself at sufficient length in 
his speech on his trial ; x but as he there refers to his previous 
answers, we have thought it best to give insertion here to an 
autograph paper of his preserved in the Public Record Office. 2 

" Concerning equivocation, which I seemed to condemn in 
moral things, my meaning was in moral and human conversation, 
' : n which the virtue of verity is required among friends, for other- 
wise it were injurious to all humanity. Neither is equivocation 
at all to be justified, but in case of necessary defence from 
injustice or wrong, or the obtaining some good of great import- 
ance, when there is no danger of harm to others, as in the case 
of Coventry, 3 wherein I suppose it is a great advantage to me 
for to be admitted, and no harm can ensue to the city. For the 
city seeketh nothing but to be free from the sickness, and if it 
were possible that the city knew me to be free of certainty, they 
would admit me presently, which is confirmed by the custom of 
places beyond [sea], where, though they know a man to come 
from a place infected, yet after they have kept him in some 
several place, with convenient diet, for forty days, they admit him. 

" As for Mr. Tresham's equivocation, I am loath to judge ; yet 
I think ignorance might excuse him, because he might think it 
lawful in that case to equivocate for the excuse of his friend, yet 
would I be loath to allow of it or practise it : he being not then 
urged, but voluntarily offering it himself, contrary to that which 
he had before set down, and especially being in case of manifest 
treason, as I will after explain. But in case a man be urged at 
the hour of his death, it is lawful for to equivocate, with such 
due circumstances as are required in his life. An example we may 
bring in another matter. For the divines hold that in some cases 
a man may be bound to conceal something in his confession, 
because of some great harm which may ensue of it. And as he 
may do so in his life, so may he at his death, if the danger of the 
harm continue still. 

" The case being propounded, supposing that I knew Gerard 

1 Infra p. 244. 

2 Gunpowder Plot Book, 11. 2 1 7 a. 

3 Cowetry (MS.). If this word is read thus correctly, it is a curious proof 
of the antiquity of the phrase "being sent to Coventry." 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxi 

acquainted with this treason, and having been often demanded 
thereof, I still denying it, by way of equivocation, whether at the 
hour of my death, either natural or by course of justice, I may by 
equivocation seek to clear him again. 

" I answer, that in case I be not urged I may not, but I must 
leave the matter in case in which it stand ; but if I be urged, then 
I may clear him by equivocation, whereas otherwise my silence 
would be accounted an accusation. But all this I understand 
when the case is such that I am bound to conceal Gerard's 
treason, as if I had heard it in confession. For this is a general 
rule, that in cases of true and manifest treason, 1 a man is bound 
voluntarily in utter and very truth by no way to equivocate, if he 
know it not by way of confession, in which case also he is bound 
to seek all lawful ways to discover, salvo sigillo. 

" Henry Garnett. 
"29 Martii. 

"All the Doctors that hold equivocation to be lawful do 
maintain that it is not lawful when the examinate is bound to 
tell the simple truth, that is, according to the civil law, when 
there is a competent judge, and the cause subject to his juris- 
diction, and sufficient proofs. But in case of treason a man is 
bound to confess of another without any witness at all, yea, 
voluntarily to disclose it ; not so of himself. 

1 "One necessary condition," says Father Garnett in another paper 
(P. R. O., Domestic, James Z, vol. 20, n. 2), "required in every law is that it 
be just. For if this condition be wanting, that the law be unjust, then is it 
ipso facto void and of no force, neither hath it any power to oblige any. And 
this is a maxim, not only of divines, but of Aristotle and all philosophers. 
Hereupon ensueth that no power on earth can forbid or punish any action 
which we are bound unto by the law of God, which is the true pattern of all 
justice. So that the laws against recusants, against receiving of Priests, against 
confession, against Mass, or other rites of Catholic religion, are to be esteemed 
as no laws by such as steadfastly believe these to be necessary observances of 
the true religion. 

"Likewise Almighty God hath absolute right for to send His preachers of 
His Gospel to anyplace in the world. ' Euntes decete omnes gentes.' So 
that the law against Priests coming into the realm sincerely to preach, is no 
law, and those that are put to death by virtue of that decree are verily martyrs 
because they die for the preaching of true religion. 

"Being asked what I meant by true treason, I answer that that is a true 
treason which is made treason by any just law, and that is no treason at all 
which is made treason by an unjust law." 



ccxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

" And how far the common law bindeth in cases that are not 
treason a man to confess of himself, I know not. In the civil 
law, it is sufficient to have semiplenam probationem, that is, unum 
testem omni exceptione majorem, or manifesto, i?idicia. 

" Our law I take to be more mild, and that a man may put all 
to witnesses without confessing, except in cases of treason. For, 
according to our law, non pervertitur judicium tacendo vel negando, 
as in the civil law, where is required reus confitens. But generally, 
when a man is bound to confess, there is no place of equivocation. 
And when he is not bound to confess according to the laws of 
each country, then may he equivocate." 

In the last paper Father Garnett is not speaking of equivo- 
cation used in defence of an innocent person, but of what we 
may call the persistent plea of " Not guilty," and he there draws 
an interesting distinction between the Roman civil law and our 
own, which he calls " more mild," in that it professed to regard 
a prisoner as innocent till he is proved to be guilty. Happily 
this is our practice now, as well as our profession, and our 
quotations are needed to enable us to form judgments of conduct 
in times that have happily passed away. 

But with regard to the trustworthiness of Father John 
Gerard's evidence, as we have it before us in his Narrative of 
the Gunpowder Plot, even if the lawfulness of his proceedings 
were not admitted, all that we are concerned to show is, that 
untrue statements, made by a man under circumstances which, 
rightly or wrongly, he considers to justify him in making them, 
furnish no presumption whatever that, under other circumstances, 
affording to his conscience no such justification, his word cannot 
be trusted. It is an evident instance of the maxim that the 
exception proves the rule. Restraining himself carefully within 
the limits of what he held to be lawful under circumstances of 
extreme difficulty and great personal danger, are we not rather to 
conclude that, under far less pressure, he will as carefully confine 
himself to the laws imposed by his conscience ? Clearly there is 
nothing in Father Gerard's practice under examination to cause 
us to hesitate in placing implicit trust in his word when he speaks 
as an historian ; and, in addition, we are sure that no one will rise 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxiii 

from the perusal of the exculpatory letters which we propose to 
subjoin, without a full conviction of his innocence and truth- 
fulness. 

XXXI. 

But before we close this subject by producing these letters, we 
think it desirable to answer in detail two particular accusations 
that have been brought against Father Gerard's veracity by a 
modern writer. Canon Tierney says } "To show how very little 
reliance can be placed on the asseverations of Gerard when 
employed in his own vindication, it is only right to observe that, 
referring to this transaction " [the Communion of the conspirators 
after their oath of secresy] " in his manuscript narrative, he first 
boldly and very properly asserts, on the authority of Winter's 
confession, that the Priest who administered the Sacrament was 
not privy to the designs of the conspirators ; and then ignorant of 
Faukes' declaration which had not been published, and supposing 
that his name had not transpired, as that of the Clergyman who 
had officiated upon the occasion, he returns at once to the 
artifice which I have elsewhere noticed, of substituting a third 
person as the narrator, and solemnly protests on his salvation that 
he knows not the Priest from whom Catesby and his associates 
received the Communion ! " 

Dr. Lingard also says simply that the Communion was 
received by the conspirators "from the hand of the Jesuit 
missionary Father Gerard," 2 apparently unconscious that he had 
ever denied it. 

We have little doubt that the house in which the oath of 
secrecy was taken and holy Communion received, was really 
Father Gerard's house. The "house in the fields behind St. 
Clement's Inn," as Faulks calls it; "behind St. Clement's," as 
it appears in Winter's confession, seems to be the house described 
by Father Gerard as that which he occupied up to the time of the 
Powder Plot, "nearer the principal street in London, called the 
Strand," 3 in which street most of his friends lived. But he was 
not the only Priest who lived in that house. At least two other 

1 Dodd's Church History, ed. Tierney, vol. iv., p. 44, note. 

2 History of England, ed. 1 849, vol. vii., p. 44. 

3 Supra p. clxii. 



ccxxiv Life of Father John Gerard, 

Priests 1 resided habitually with him. One was Father Strange, 
who was in the Tower when the Autobiography was written ; the 
other, whose name he does not give, "was thrown into Bridewell, 
and was afterwards banished, together with other Priests." Then 
there was also Thomas Laithwaite, 2 who afterwards became a 
Jesuit, who frequented the house if he did not live there. Father 
Gerard says, " There I should long have remained, free from all 
peril or even suspicion, if some friends of mine, while I was 
absent from London, had not availed themselves of the house 
rather rashly." What meaning can this have but that Catholics 
were allowed, in Father Gerard's absence, to come to the house 
too freely to receive the Sacraments, so that it became too widely 
known that it was his house ? 

Immediately after binding themselves by oath to secrecy, the 
minds of the conspirators must have been preoccupied with the 
thoughts of the tremendous undertaking to which they had just 
pledged themselves ; and it is very unlikely that mention should 
be made, in subsequent conversation among them, of the name 
of the Priest, whom they had only seen at the altar, especially as 
he "was not acquainted with their purpose." 3 The only two 
conspirators who mention Father Gerard's name are Faulks and 
Thomas Winter. Faulks was a stranger, who had "spent most of 
his time in the wars of Flanders, which is the cause that he was 
less known here in England." 4 We have no trace of any personal 
intercourse between Thomas Winter and Father Gerard. What 
can have been more natural than that they should have been told 
to meet at Father Gerard's house, and that those who did not 
know him by sight should have concluded that it was Father 
Gerard's Mass that they heard ? It surely is more probable that 
they should have been mistaken in a name than that Father 
Gerard should have been guilty of perjury in contradicting, from 
a place of safety, that which was no accusation against him, but a 
harmless statement that, in ignorance of the oath taken, he had 
given Communion to certain Catholics. 



1 Stcpra pp. clxxiv., clxxvii. 

2 Supra p. clxxvi. 

3 Faulks' confession, P. R. O. , Gunpowder Plot Book, ri. 54. 

4 Infra p. 59» 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxv 

Faulks' confession was extorted by torture. King James had 
given orders, " The gentler tortours are to be first usid unto him, 
et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur, and so God speede your goode 
work." 1 Faulks was under none of the "gentler tortures" when 
in a tremulous hand he wrote "Guido" on that declaration. 
"The prisoner is supposed to have fainted before completing" 2 
the signature. Before the words exculpating Father Gerard from 
all knowledge of the conspirators' purpose, the word Hiicusque 
appears in the handwriting of Sir Edward Coke, who has under- 
lined the sentence in red. The ideas of justice of this great 
lawyer permitted him to publish the mention there made of 
Father Gerard's name, and to suppress the statement of his 
innocence. There is also a red line drawn beneath the following 
words in Thomas Winter's examination : " But Gerard knew not 
of the provision of the powder, to his knowledge." 3 

The second accusation brought by the same writer, 4 is 
couched as follows : " Relying upon the fidelity of Gerard, who 
declares upon his conscience, that he has ' set down Father 
Garnett's words truly and sincerely as they lie in his letter,' 
Dr. Lingard has printed what is given by that writer, and from it 
has argued, with Greenway, that Garnett on the 4th of October, 
the date assigned to it both by Gerard and Greenway, was still 
ignorant of the nature of the Plot. The truth, however, is, that 
although the letter was written on the fourth, the postcript was not 
added until the twenty -first of October ; that from this postscript 
the two Jesuit writers have selected a sentence, which they have 
transferred to the body of the letter ; and then, concealing both 
the existence of the postscript and the date of the 21st, 
have represented the whole as written and dispatched on the 
4th. The motive for this proceeding, especially on the part of 
Greenway, is obvious. That writer's argument is, that the 
Parliament had been summoned to meet on the 3rd of October, 
that Garnett had not heard of the intention to prorogue it to the 
following month (this, to say the least, is very improbable) ; that, 

1 In the King's own hand. P. R. O., Gunpowder Plot Book, n. 17. 

2 Calendar of State Papers, by M. E. Green. James I., 1603 — 10, p. 247. 

3 P. R. O., Gunpowder Plot Book, n. 164. 

4 Dodd's Church History, by Tierney, vol. iv., p. cii. 



ccxxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

for anything he could have known to the contrary, the great blow 
had already been struck, at the very time when he was writing ; 
and, consequently, that, had he been acquainted with the inten- 
tions of Catesby and his confederates, he would never, at such a 
moment, have thought of proceeding, as he says he was about to 
proceed, towards London, and thus exposing himself to the 
almost inevitable danger of falling into the hands of his enemies. 
... Now the whole of this reasoning is founded on the assump- 
tion that the letter bore only the single date of the 4th. On the 
21st, the supposed danger of a journey to London no longer 
existed. At that period, too, Garnett, instead of proceeding 
towards the metropolis, had not only removed in the opposite 
direction, from Goathurst, in Buckinghamshire, to Harrowden, 
the seat of Lord Vaux, in Northamptonshire, but was also 
preparing to withdraw himself still further from the capital, and by 
the end of the month, was actually at Coughton, in the neighbour- 
hood of Alcester. In fact, what was written on the 4th, he had 
practically contradicted on the 21st, and to have allowed any part 
of the letter, therefore, to carry this later date, would have been 
to supply the refutation of the very argument which it was 
intended to support. Hence the expedient to which this writer 
has had recourse. The postscript and its date are carefully 
suppressed ; and we are told that, looking at the contents of the 
letter, Garnett, when he wrote it, could have known nothing of 
the designs of the conspirators : ' Quando scrisse questa lettera, 
che fu alii quattro d'Ottobre, non sapeva niente del disegno di 
questi gentilhuomini, altro che il sospetto che prima havea 
havuto' (Greenway's MS., 51b). Without stopping to notice the 
falsehood contained in the concluding words of this sentence, and 
without intending to offer an opinion here, as to the principal 
question of Garnett's conduct, I may still remark that even the 
friends of that Jesuit universally admit him to have received the 
details of the plot from Green way about the 21st; and that this 
fact alone may be regarded as supplying another and a sufficient 
motive both to the latter and to Gerard, for the suppression of 
that date." 

This note by Canon Tierney produced its effect on Dr. 
Lingard, and that historian, in the edition of his work published 



Life of Father John Gerard, ccxxvii 

in 1849, remarks upon the matter as follows. 1 "The object for 
which this letter was made up in the shape which it thus assumes 
in Gerard's MS., is plain from the reasoning which both he and 
Greenway found upon it. They contend that, if Garnett had 
been privy to the conspiracy, he must have believed on the 4th 
that the explosion had already taken place on the 3rd, the day 
on which the Parliament had been summoned to meet ; though 
no reason is assigned why he might not, as well as others, have 
been aware of the prorogation to the 5th of November, and 
they add that, under such belief, he would never have resolved 
to encounter the dangers of making, as he proposed to do, a 
journey to London, though in fact he made no such journey, 
but changed his route, and was actually, at the time in which 
he wrote, on his way to the meeting appointed at Dunchurch. 
Hence it became necessary to suppress the postscript, because 
it was irreconcileable with such statements. There was, more- 
over, this benefit in the suppression, that it kept the reader in 
ignorance (1) of the real date of the letter, the 21st of October, 
the very time when it is admitted that Greenway made to 
Garnett a full disclosure of the Plot; and (2) that Garnett 
took that opportunity of blotting out a most important passage 
in the letter written on the 4th, with a promise to forward the 
same passage later in an epistle apart; two facts which would 
furnish strong presumptions against the alleged innocence of the 
Provincial." 

One word in passing, in reply to the " two facts which would 
furnish strong presumptions against " Father Garnett's innocence. 
1. Dr. Lingard has forgotten that "the full disclosure of the 
Plot" was made in confession, and that Father Garnett could 
make no use of it in any way, until the conjuncture arose when 
the penitent gave him leave. 2. It is true that a passage, 
written to Father Persons on the 4th October, was erased by 
Father Garnett on the 21st; but what presumption does this 
furnish? The "promise to forward the same passage later in 
an epistle apart," could not mean that he would write him word 
of the Powder Plot when it was safe to do so. Is it likely that 
a conspirator would have written to his friend, with all the 
1 Vol. viii., p. 543. 



ccxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

chances of a letter being intercepted, that they were proposing 
to blow up the Houses of Parliament? What would he have 
gained even had he but risked a phrase as oracular as that of 
the letter to Lord Mounteagle? Such a supposition assumes 
that Father Garnett was not only guilty of the Plot, but that 
he had lost all common sense and ordinary caution ; and that 
he was indebted to the accidental return of his letter to his 
hands, seventeen days after he had written it, for an opportunity 
of destroying proof under his own hand that he was guilty. If 
this consideration is not conclusive, we have but to refer to the 
context, as given from the original by Mr. Tierney himself, 1 and 
our sense of the ridiculous must settle the question. Father 
Garnett must have been the most erratic of letter-writers, if he 
could insert a reference to the Gunpowder Treason, or to any 
other treason, between two such subjects as the choice of 
Lay-brothers and his own want of money. The letter ends 
as follows. 

" 'I pray you send word how many Coadjutors ' " [Jesuit Lay- 
brothers] "'you will have. I have one, a citizen of London, 
of very good experience, which may benefit us, in buying and 
selling without taxes. But he is fifty years old : and I think 
it not amiss to have, at the first, some ancient men for such. 
Send your will herein.' 

"A short but separate paragraph of three lines is here carefully 
obliterated. 

" M am in wonderful distress, for want of the ordinary allow- 
ance from Joseph ' " [Creswell, the Superior in Spain]. " ' I pray 
you write for all the arrearages, which, if it may all be gotten, 
I can spare you some. Thus, with humble remembrance to 
Claud'" [Aquaviva, the General], "'Fabio, Perez, Duras, and the 
rest, I cease, 4 Octobris.'" 

But let us address ourselves to the grave accusation made 
against Gerard and Greenway. That Dr. Lingard should have 
made such a statement at all is owing, first, to the fact that at 
the time when he was preparing the new edition of his History, 
he had no longer access to the manuscript of Father Gerard, 

1 Tierney's Dodd, vol. iv., p. cv. The original letter is now in the 
archives of the Archbishop of Westminster. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxix 

of which he had had the use 1 when originally compiling his 
work. The reader, who has Gerard's Narrative now beneath 
his eyes, can speedily convince himself of this fact. And, 
secondly, to a misunderstanding of Canon Tierney's note, for 
which that writer's expressions are to blame. If it had been 
true, as Dr. Lingard understood Mr. Tierney to say, that Gerard 
and Greenway drew the same argument from the date of Father 
Garnett's letter, their conduct would have been entirely inde- 
fensible, and they would have deserved the blame brought against 
them. 

The truth however is, and in this lies an ample defence 
for both of them, that this is not so. Father Gerard quotes 
Father Garnett's letter only and solely to illustrate the state of 
the Catholics in England. For this purpose, the date of the 
letter he was quoting was entirely unimportant. Indeed, he 
originally quoted the letter without any date; and then he 
interlined the date of Oct. 4th, but laying no more stress upon 
it than he had laid on the dates of the other letters of July 24th 
and August 28th. For the same reason it would not occur to 
him to note that the passage respecting Ireland was taken from 
a postcript. It was enough for him that he gave Father Garnett's 
very words, as he declared "upon his conscience" that he did; 
and that he had Father Garnett's authority for the account that 
he was giving of the condition and state of feeling of Catholics. 
When he turned to the letter for a date, it was natural enough 
that he should take that which was endorsed upon it by Father 
Persons, who, having erased the date of the 21st which he had 
originally written upon it, had substituted the 4th, and "in 
another corner of the paper also, where it appears most likely 
to catch the eye, inscribed the same date thus, '4 8 bris .'" 2 As 
there is no ground for blaming Father Persons for thus endorsing 
a single date on a letter which continued to bear two, so neither 
is it reasonable to blame Father Gerard for quoting the letter 
under one date only. It is clear, therefore, that there is no 
accusation whatever against Father Gerard, and if Father 
Greenway had not drawn from the date of the letter the argu- 
ment regarding Father Garnett, none would ever have been 
1 Vol. iii., p. 37, note. 2 Tierney's Dodd, vol. iv., p. cvi. 



ccxxx Life of Father John Gerard. 

made. It is gravely to be regretted that Mr. Tierney should 
have said that there was " a sufficient motive both to the latter 
and to Gera?'d for the suppression of that date." This expression 
evidently misled Dr. Lingard, and led him erroneously to speak 
of " the reasoning which both he [Gerard] and Greenway found 
upon it." Had Dr. Lingard not trusted to Mr. Tierney, but 
referred to Gerard's Narrative, he would have said of the 
whole charge that which he has said 1 of the alterations of names 
in the first part of the letter. Of this his expression is, " Had 
his object been only to present the public with an account of 
the persecution to which the English Catholics were at that 
moment subjected, there would not have been great cause to 
complain." This was his only object, 2 and therefore there was, 
in Dr. Lingard's judgment, no great cause to complain. 

Father Greenway derived his information of the letter from 
Father Gerard's Narrative, of which he was translator. Whether 
the argument he has founded on the date of the letter has any 
and what force is not here under discussion, but it is evident that 
he propounded it in good faith. The original letter was in 
existence to confute him. If he had seen it or noticed the 
postscript and its date, he would never have exposed himself to 
such a confutation. He was misled, innocently enough, but 
seriously, by the manner in which the letter appeared in Father 
Gerard's pages which he was translating. 

In a word, the accusation is this. Gerard and Greenway 
found an argument on the fact that a letter of Garnett's was 
dated the 4th of October, when they knew that it was in his 
hands on the 21st. And the answer is this. Gerard may have 
known, but had no need to notice, the fact of the double date, as 
he founded no argument whatever upon it : Greenway, who did 
found an argument on it, had no reason for suspecting the 
existence of a later date on the letter. 

1 Vol. vii., p. 542. 2 See Narrative, infra p. 79. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxxi 



XXXIL 

Having thus vindicated the fair fame of these Fathers from the 
unmerited imputations brought against them, it remains for us to 
produce the letters which were written expressly to prove Father 
Gerard's innocence of all complicity with the conspiracy. We 
first take from the Public Record Office 1 his letter to the Duke of 
Lenox, enclosing letters to the Earl of Salisbury and Sir Everard 
Digby. These are the letters described by Father Gerard himself 
in the twelfth chapter of his Narrative. 2 

" Right Honourable, — Seeing all laws, both divine and 
human, do license the innocent to plead for himself, and the same 
laws do strictly require and highly commend an open ear in any 
of authority to give audience and equal trial to a plaintiff in such 
a case, my hope is that your Grace will excuse this my boldness 
in offering up by your hands my humble petition for trial of my 
innocence touching the late most impious treason, whereof I am 
wrongfully accused, by some lost companions, I assure me, who, 
to save themselves from deserved punishment, will not stick to 
accuse any innocent of any crime wherein their bare word may 
pass for proof. There is none so innocent but may be wrong- 
fully accused, sith innocency itself in our Lord and Master was 
accused and condemned as an enemy to the State and no friend 
to Caesar. The servant must not look to be more free from 
wrongs than his Master was. But happy is that man by whom 
the truth is tried in judgment and innocency cleared. 

" I durst not presume, being branded with the odious name of " 
traitor, to offer my petition to my Sovereign (to whom, as God is 
witness, I wish long life and all happiness as to my own soul). 
But if by your Grace's means (of whose piety and worthy dis- 
position I have heard so much good) the humble suit of a 
distressed suppliant (prostrate at His Majesty's feet) may be 
offered up, I hope it shall be found not unfit for your Grace to 
offer, and most fit and reasonable for so wise and righteous a 
Prince to grant. 

1 Dojnestic, James I., vol. xviii., n. 35. 

2 Supra p. clxxix ; infra p. 208. 



ccxxxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

" My humble petition is only this. That, whereas I have 
protested before God and the world, I was not privy to that 
horrible Plot of destroying the King's Majesty and his posterity, 
&c., by powder (wherewith I am now so publicly taxed in the 
proclamation), that full trial may be made, whether I be guilty 
therein or not. And if so it be proved, that then all shame 
and pain may light upon me; but if the truth appear on the 
contrary side, that then I may be cleared from this so grievous an 
infamation and punishment not deserved. Two kinds of proofs 
may be made in this cause, which I humbly beseech your Grace, 
for God's cause, may be performed. One is, that all the principal 
conspirators (with whom I am said to have practised the foresaid 
Plot of Powder against the Parliament House) may be asked at 
their death, as they will answer at the dreadful tribunal unto 
which they are going, whether ever they did impart the matter to 
me, or I practise the same with them in the least degree, or 
whether they can but say of their knowledge that I did know of 
it. And I know it will then appear that no one of them will 
accuse me, if it be not apparent they do it in hope of life, but do 
give signs that they die in the fear of God and hope of their 
salvation. 

"And as by this trial it will appear (in this time most fit for 
saying truth) that there is not sufficient witness against me, so I 
humbly desire also trial may be made by examining a witness, 
who can, if he will, fully clear me, and I hope he will not deny 
me that right, especially being 1 . . . the place of right and 
justice himself. Sir Everard Digby can testify for me, how 
ignorant I was of any such matter but two days before that 
unnatural parricide should have been practised. I have, for full 
trial thereof, enclosed a letter unto him, which I humbly beseech 
may be delivered before your Grace and the other two lords, 
whose favour and equity I have likewise humbly entreated by 
these letters unto them. All which I am bold to direct unto your 
Grace's hands, presuming upon your gracious furtherance, not 
having other means, in this my distressed case, to have them 
severally delivered. God of His goodness will reward, I hope, in 
full measure, this your Grace's favour and pity showed to an 
1 Here the paper is torn, and three or four words are consequently illegible. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxxiii 

innocent wrongly accused, who would rather suffer any death 
than not to be found ever faithful to God and his Sovereign, 

"John Gerard. 
"This 23rd of January." 

Addressed — "To the Right Honourable the Duke of Lenox, 
these deliver." 

Endorsed in Cecil's hand-—''' Gerard the Jesuit to the Duke of 
Lenox." 

" Right Honourable, — Although I can expect no other from 
one in your place, but that you should permit the course of justice 
to proceed against any that are proved guilty of treason to His 
Majesty and the State, especially in so foul and unnatural a 
treason as was lately discovered, yet I cannot but hope where 
there is so much wisdom, and so vigilant a care for the preser- 
vation of this State, your lordship will also be pleased to hear, 
and forward to make trial, who may be wrongfully accused, 
knowing right well that it is as necessary in any Government to 
protect the innocent as to punish the offenders. 

"What proof there is of my accusation I know not, and 
therefore cannot answer it. But this I know : that none can truly 
produce the least proof that ever I was made privy to that 
treason of which I am accused, and much less a practiser with 
the principal conspirators in the same, as I am denounced to be. 
Therefore, sith I know not my accusers, God I hope will be 
judge between them and me, to Whom I refer my cause, and in 
Whom my trust is, and ever shall be, that He will right me. 

"In the meantime my humble request is, that your lordship, 
who have been so often seen to be pitiful towards any in distress, 
and a potent helper to those who were oppressed (a special 
ornament in so eminent a person, and much commended and 
rewarded by God Himself), will show your accustomed commise- 
ration in my case, and afford me therein such audience as may be 
sufficient to make trial of my innocency. Wherein your lordship 
shall imitate the just proceeding of the highest Lord, from Whom 
both yourself, and all that govern, have all your power. For God 
Himself, although He know all things before He call us to 
account, yet, to give us the form of just proceeding, is said in 
P 



ccxxxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

Holy Scripture to be ever careful in hearing what the accused can 
say for himself before He proceeds to give sentence. So we read 
that God said to Abraham, 'Clamor Sodomorum etc., multiplicatus 
est, etc., descendam et videbo utrum clamorem qui venit ad me 
opere compleverint, an non est ita, ut sciam.' So again in the 
Gospel when He heard a complaint against His steward, He 
would not proceed against him without full audience, but called 
him and said, ' Quid hsec audio de te ? redde rationem 
villicationis tua?.' These most high and worthy examples I trust 
your lordship will follow in my case, as you have been known to 
do with others. And then I doubt not but that shall appear true 
which I have most sincerely protested before God and the world. 
" My humble petition therefore is, that a witness may be 
asked his knowledge who is well able to clear me if he will, and I 
hope he will not be so unjust in this time of his own danger as to 
conceal so needful a proof being so demanded of him. Sir Everard 
Digby doth well know how far I was from knowledge of any such 
matter but two days before the treason was known to all men. I 
have therefore written a letter unto him, to require his testimony 
of that which passed between him and me at that time. Wherein, 
if I may have your lordship's furtherance to have just trial made 
of the truth whilst yet he liveth, I shall ever esteem myself most 
deeply bound to pray for your lordship's happiness both in this 
world and in the next. In which hope I will rest, your lordship's 
prone and humble suppliant, never to be proved false to King 

and country, 

"John Gerard. 
" This 23rd of January." 

Addressed — "To the Right Honourable the Earl of Salisbury, 
Principal Secretary to His Majesty, these." 

Endorsed in Cecil's hand — " Gerard the Jesuit to my son." 

" Sir Everard Digby, — I presume so much of your sincerity 
both to God and man, that I cannot fear you will be loath to utter 
your knowledge for the clearing of one that is innocent from a 
most unjust accusation, importing both loss of life to him that is 
accused, and of his good name also, which he much more 
esteemeth. 



Life of Father Joh7i Gerard. ccxxxv 

" So it is that upon some false information (given, as I 
suppose, by some base fellows, desirous to save their lives by the 
loss of their honesty) there is come forth a proclamation against 
my Superior, and one other of the Society, and myself, as against 
three notorious practisers with divers of the principal conspirators 
in this late most odious treason of destroying the King's Majesty 
and all in the Parliament House with powder. And myself am 
put in the first place, as the first or chiefest offender therein. 

" Now God I call to witness, Who must be my Judge, that I 
did never know of it before the rumour of the country brought it 
to the place where I was, after the treason was publicly discovered. 
And if this protestation be not sincerely true, without any equivo- 
cation, and the words thereof so understood by me, as they sound 
to others, I neither desire nor expect any favour at God's hand 
when I shall stand before His tribunal. But because this 
protestation doth only clear me in their opinion who are so 
persuaded of my conscience that they think I would not condemn 
my soul to save my body (which I hope by God's grace shall 
never be my mind) : therefore, to give more full proof of my 
innocency to those also may doubt the truth of my words, I take 
witness to yourself whether you, upon your certain knowledge, 
cannot clear me. I wrote a letter before Christmas which I 
hoped would be sufficient to have cleared me ; wherein, 
beside a most serious protestation (such as no honest man can 
use if he were guilty, as for my part v my conscience doth 
persuade me), I alleged some other reasons which did make it 
more than probable, in my opinion, that I was neither to be 
charged with this late treason, nor chargeable with former dealing 
in State matters. But I did of purpose forbear this proof (which 
now I allege), although I did assure myself it would clear me 
from all just suspicion of being privy to that last and greatest 
treason ; and I did forbear to set it down, in regard I would not 
take knowledge of any personal acquaintance with you, especially 
at your own house, not knowing how far you were to be touched 
for your life, and therefore would not add unto your danger. But 
now that it appears by your confession and trial in the country 
that you stand at the King's mercy for greater matters than your 
acquaintance with a Priest, I hope you will not be loath I should 



ccxxxvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

publish that which cannot hurt you, and may help myself in a 
matter of such importance. And as I know you could never like 
to stoop to so base and unworthy a humour as to flatter or 
dissemble with any man, so much less can I fear that now (being 
in the case you are in) you can ever think it fit to dissemble with 
God, or not to utter your every knowledge, being required as from 
Him, and in the behalf of truth. Therefore I desire you will bear 
witness of the truth which followeth (if it be true that I affirm of 
my demand to you, growing upon my ignorance in the matter 
then in hand) as you expect truth and mercy at God's hand 
hereafter. 

" First, I desire you to bear witness whether, coming to your 
house upon All Souls' Day last, before dinner, with intention and 
hope to celebrate there, and finding all things hid out of the way 
and many of your household gone, you did not perceive me to be 
astonished at it, as a thing much contrary to my expectation. 
Whereupon I asked you what was become of them. And when 
you told me you had sent them into Warwickshire, and your 
hounds also, and yourself were going presently after, about a 
hunting match which you had made, though I seemed satisfied 
for the present because a stranger was there with you, yet 
whether I did not soon after (when I had compared many 
particulars together which seemed strange unto me) draw you 
into a chamber apart, and there urge you to tell me what was the 
reason both of that sudden alteration in your house and of divers 
other things which I had observed before, but did not until then 
reflect upon them so much, as, for example, the number of horses 
that you had not long before in your stable, the sums of money 
which I had been told you had made of your stock and grounds, 
which (said I) in one of your judgment and provident care of 
your estate, are not likely to be done without some great cause, 
and seemed to think you had something in hand for the Catholic 
cause. Your answer was, 'No, there was nothing in hand that 
you knew of, or could tell me of.' And when I replied that I had 
some fear of it by those signs, considering you would not hurt 
your estate so much in likelihood without some cause equivalent 
(for I knew very well you meant to pay the statute, and so stood 
not in fear of losing your stock), and therefore willed you to look 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxxvii 

well that you followed counsel in your proceedings, or else you 
might hurt both yourself and the cause, your answer was (which 
I have remembered often since), 'That you respected the Catholic 
cause much more than your own commodity, as it should well 
appear whensoever you undertook anything.' I asked you once 
again whether, then, there were anything to be done, and whether 
you expected any help by foreign power, whereunto you answered, 
holding up the end of your finger, that you would not adventure 
so much in hope thereof. Then I said, ' I pray God you follow 
counsel in your doings. If there be any matter in hand, doth 
Mr. Walley know of it ? ' You answered, ' In truth, I think he 
doth not.' Then I said further, 'In truth, Sir Everard Digby, if 
there should be anything in hand, and that you retire yourself 
and company into Warwickshire, as into a place of most safety, I 
should think you did not perform the part of a friend to some of 
your neighbours not far off, and persons that, as you know, 
deserve every respect, and to whom you have professed much 
friendship, that they are left behind, and have not any warning to 
make so much provision for their own safety as were needful in 
such a time, but to defend themselves from rogues.' Your answer 
was (as I will be sworn), ' I warrant you it shall not need.' And 
so you gave me assurance that, if there had been anything needful 
for them or me to know, you would assuredly have told me. So I 
rested satisfied and parted from you, and after that I never saw 
you nor any of the conspirators. These were my questions unto 
you. And thus clear I was from the knowledge of that Plot 
against the Parliament House, whereof, notwithstanding, I am 
accused and proclaimed to be a practiser with the principal 
conspirators. But I refer me to God and your conscience, who 
are able to clear me, and I challenge the conscience of any one 
that certainly expecteth death, and desireth to die in the fear of 
God and with hope of his salvation, to accuse me of it if he can. 
God, of His mercy, grant unto us all grace to see and do His 
will, and to live and die His servants, for they only are and shall 
be happy for ever. 

"Your companion in tribulation though not in the cause, 

"John Gerard." 



ccxxxviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

Poster ipt. — "I hope you will also witness with me that you 
have ever seen me much averted from such violent courses, and 
hopeful rather of help by favour than by force. And, indeed, if 
I had not now been satisfied by your assurance that there was 
nothing in hand, it should presently have appeared how much I 
had misliked any forcible attempts, the counsel of Christ and the 
commandment of our superiors requiring the contrary, and that 
in patience we should possess our souls." 

Addressed — " To Sir Everard Digby, prisoner in the Tower." 
Endorsed in Cecils hand — " Gerard the Priest to Sir Everard 
Digby." 

From Father Bartoli 1 we take a letter written from Rome, 
twenty-five years after the Powder Plot, addressed by Father 
Gerard to Dr. Smith, Bishop of Chalcedon, and Vicar Apostolic 
of England. The translation from Bartoli's Italian version is a 
very old one ; the date of the letter is September i, 1630. 

"My Lord, — Not long since I received information that a 
manuscript dissertation, with the title of Brevis Inquisitio, &°c, 
had been circulated in your parts ; in the course of which it is 
pretended that a certain person continues to glory, to the present 
day, that by working under ground in the mine of Mr. Catesby 
and other conspirators, by excavating and carrying out the soil 
with his own hands, he has often found his shirt wet through and 
dripping with sweat as copiously as if it had been dragged 
through a river ; and that this person is no other than myself, 
according to the opinion expressed in the letter. I despised such 
an idle tale as undeserving of an answer, knowing it, as most 
others must know it, to be not only most false, but, moreover, 
most remote from probability. I only begged of a good Priest, 
who was setting out for England, to make known to your lordship 
what I had heard concerning such a deed laid to my charge, so 
contrary to all truth and justice ; and that I hoped you would 
not give credit to it, but rather on hearing it mentioned by any 
one, would show the falsehood as it is. But in the meantime, 

1 Iiighilterra, lib. vi., cap. 6, p. 513. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxxxix 

while the Priest is yet on his journey, I have learned from good 
authority that the book has been printed and published, curtailed 
indeed of that story, which is, however, circulated in manuscript 
through the hands of many, with every circumstance and 
embellishment ; whence has arisen the general opinion that I 
am the person there spoken of, the testimony of a Priest being 
alleged, who says that he has heard me boast of it. Truly I 
cannot sufficiently express my astonishment on perceiving that 
there can be found a Catholic, and if a Priest so much the worse, 
who has so shameless a conscience as to dare assert what he must 
necessarily know to be false, and injurious to one who never did 
him any harm or injury whatever. This I can affirm of myself 
with respect to every Priest in England, to many of whom I 
have often afforded assistance, but, to my knowledge, have never 
offended one. Your lordship, moreover, must be aware how 
very improbable it is that I should boast of a crime so false, so 
horrible. Now, with all due reverence, I call God to witness that 
I had no more knowledge of the conspiracy than a new-born 
infant might have ; that I never heard any one mention it ; that I 
had not even a suspicion of the provision of gunpowder for the 
mine, excepting only when the Plot was detected, made public, 
and known to every one, and when the conspirators appeared 
openly in arms in the county of Warwick ; then only did I hear 
of it for the first time, by a message brought to the place where 
I resided ; and this place was so ill provided that of itself it 
proved I could have no knowledge of the conspiracy, either from 
the expressions of others or from my own suspicions ; there being 
in that place neither men nor arms sufficient to defend us from 
the marauders, who on every occasion of similar commotions 
issue forth and unite in bodies for plunder. Neither did this 
happen for want of sufficient means to furnish and reinforce the 
house with men and arms, but solely because we had no suspicion 
of a commotion, much less any knowledge of a conspiracy. 
Besides this, the accomplices in the Plot were subjected to the 
most rigorous examination, and questioned concerning me ; and 
although some of them under the torture named one or others of 
those who were privy to the conspiracy, nevertheless all con- 
stantly denied it of me. Sir Everard Digby, who of all the others, 



ccxl Life of Father John Gerard. 

for many reasons, was most suspected of having possibly revealed 
the secret to me, protested in open court and declared that he 
had often been instigated to say I knew something of the Plot, 
but that he had always answered in the negative, alleging the 
reason why he had never dared to disclose it to me, because, he 
said, he feared lest I should dissuade him from it. Therefore the 
greater part of the Privy Councillors considered my innocence 
established, it being proved by the concurrent testimony of so 
many, and by a letter in which I defended and cleared myself 
from such a groundless suspicion. In that letter, besides the 
reasons therein produced in proof of my innocence, I protested 
before Heaven and earth that, so far from being engaged in the 
conspiracy, I was as ignorant of it as man could be. Being at 
that time in imminent danger of falling into the hands of the 
Privy Councillors, who with the most refined diligence sent in 
every direction in quest of me, I had thoughts of surrendering 
myself up to every torment imaginable, and what is more to be 
regarded, to the terrible and disgraceful charge of perjury, if 
having me in their power they could convict me, by legal proof, 
of being privy to the conspiracy. There was a time, when under 
Elizabeth they held me prisoner for something more than three 
years, during which period, many times and in as many ways as 
they chose, did they examine me, to discover in general if I had 
ever meddled in affairs of State. I challenged them to produce in 
proof a single character in my hand, a single word, or anything 
else sufficient to show it, and then to punish me when convicted 
with the most cruel death that could be inflicted. There never 
was brought forward the smallest trace or shadow of a proof. 
How much more improbable is it that I should consent to a Plot 
so inhuman, I who, from the natural disposition of my soul,, 
independently of supernatural motives, hold in abhorrence 
everything that has the smallest appearance of cruelty. This 
I can affirm with truth, that from the time I first embraced the 
profession of life in which I am engaged, down to the present 
moment, I have never, by God's mercy, desired the grievous 
harm, much less the death, of any man in the world, although he 
may have been my most inveterate enemy : how could I then 
have had any hand or part in the sudden, unexpected, and on 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxli 

that account tremendous death of so many personages of such 
high quality, for whom I have ever borne the greatest respect. 
A person was employed to scatter copies of my forementioned 
letter through various streets of London, and one in particular 
was delivered to the Earl of Northampton, and by him laid before 
the King, on whom my reasons so far prevailed to his satis- 
faction that he would have desisted from the rigorous search 
made after me, had not Cecil, for his own private ends, rendered 
him more violent than ever. For being persuaded that some of 
the conspirators had plotted against his life in particular, and 
knowing that most of them were my friends, he hoped if he could 
once lay hold of me, to find out from me how many and who 
were the conspirators. For this sole reason he never rested until 
he had again persuaded the King, as a thing evidently known to 
him and clearly demonstrated, that I was not only an accom- 
plice but the ringleader in the Plot, and therefore to be the first 
named in the proclamation • which was so done. Perceiving from 
this that the persecution was not likely to abate, and that I might 
be discovered and arrested, I took the advice to withdraw myself 
for a time, and to ' give place to wrath,' and, after so many years 
of hard labour in England, with the Apostles ' to come apart into 
a desert place and rest a little:' nor was there any other principal 
motive of my leaving the kingdom. In fine, this is the simple 
naked truth; I was totally ignorant of the provision of gunpowder 
and of the mine ; I was and I am as innocent of this and of 
every other conspiracy as your lordship or any other man living ; 
and this I affirm and swear upon my soul, without any equivo- 
cation whatsoever; in such sort, that if the facts do not 
correspond truly to the meaning of the words, or if I had any 
information of the forementioned Plot before it was made public 
to the whole world, as I have before said, I own myself guilty of 
perjury before God and men ; and as far as it is true that I had 
no knowledge of it, so far and no more do I ask mercy at the 
throne of God : and it is very probable that it will not be long 
before I must appear at the divine tribunal, considering my age 
and the present contagion in the neighbourhood ; for if it should 
reach us it is hardly possible I can escape, on account of the 
assistance which it is my duty to render to this Community, 



ccxlii Life of Father John Gerard. 

whose souls are committed to my care. 1 Therefore I am induced 
to hope that your lordship will not consider me so careless and 
prodigal of my eternal salvation, after having spent so many 
years in no other employment than that of seeking to know and 
to accomplish the will of God, and of teaching the same to others, 
as to be now willing to burthen my conscience and risk the 
salvation of my soul by a protestation so solemn and spontaneous, 
if my conscience were not pure, my cause evident, and my words 
true in all sincerity. Now, as I doubt not that God, the Supreme 
Judge, Who sees and knows all things, will pass sentence on my 
cause according to its merits, so I hope that your lordship, now 
knowing me to be innocent, will not wish me to appear guilty, by 
permitting to stand against me without contradiction an accu- 
sation so false and of such enormous infamy. Since this 
accusation derives its greatest force from the authority of your 
lordship, who, it is publicly said, gives credit and support to it, I 
beseech you, by that love which you have for charity and justice, 
to oppose the falsity of the calumny by the truth of this my 
justification. With respect to the Priest, whoever he may be, 
by whose false allegation your lordship appears to have been 
deceived, I desire with all my heart he may meet • with true 
repentance before he dies, so that we may all live together and 
love God in a blessed eternity." 

Next, we find, in Father Henry More's History of the English 
Province S.J.? a letter from Father Thomas Fitzherbert, Rector 
of the English College at Rome, of which house Father Gerard 
was then Confessor. It is not necessary for us to translate it from 
his Latin version, as it exists in English amongst the Stonyhurst 
MSS. 3 It is dated some months later than the foregoing letter of 
Father Gerard, and was sent by Mutius Vitelleschi, General of the 
Society, to the Bishop of Chalcedon, by the hands of Fathers 
Henry Floyd and Thomas Bapthorpe, who were at the same 
time bearers of a second letter from Father Gerard to Bishop 
Smith, extracts from which we subjoin, translated from Bartoli. 4 

1 He was then Confessor in the English College at Rome. 

2 Lib. vii., n. 44, p. 339. 

3 Angl. A., vol. iv., n. 92. 

4 Ingkilterra, pp. 510, 512. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxliii 

"Right Rev. and my honorable good Lord, — Having under- 
stood that one of our Society hath been of late traduced, 
tacito nomine, in a printed book as to have bragged that 
he had sweat in working in the Powder Plot, and that your 
lordship have named him, and as it seemeth, dost believe him 
to be Father John Gerard, I think myself obliged to represent 
to your lordship's consideration some things concerning him, and 
that matter, as well in respect of the common bond of our 
religion and his great merits, as also for that he is at this 
present under my charge (albeit I acknowledge myself unworthy 
to have such a subject), and lastly for the knowledge I have had 
many years of his innocency in that point ever since that 
slanderous calumny was first raised by the heretics against him, 
at which time I myself and many other of his friends and 
kinsmen did very diligently and curiously inform ourselves of 
the truth thereof, and found that he was fully cleared of it even 
by the public and solemn testimony of the delinquents them- 
selves, namely of Sir Everard Digby (with whom he was known 
to be most familiar and confident), who publicly protested at 
his arraignment that he did never acquaint him with their 
design, being assured that he would not like of it, but dissuade 
him from it ; and of this I can show good testimony by letters 
from London written hither at the same time, bearing date the 
29th of January, in the year 1606. Therefore, to the end that 
your lordship may the better believe it, I have thought good to 
shew the same to some very credible persons, who are shortly to 
depart from hence, and do mean to present themselves to your 
lordship, of whom you may (if it please you) understand the 
truth of it. Besides that for your better satisfaction, I have also 
by our right reverend Father General's express order and com- 
mission commanded him in their presence upon obedience 
(which commandment we hold by our Rule and Institute to 
bind, under pain of mortal sin) to declare the truth whether 
he had any knowledge of that Powder Plot or no, and he hath 
in their presence protested upon his salvation, that he had never 
any knowledge of it, either by Sir Everard Digby, or any other, 
until it was discovered, and that he came to know it by 
common fame ; besides that alleged many pregnant proofs of 



ccxliv Life of Father John Gerard. 

his innocency therein which I omit to write, because he himself 
doth represent them to your lordship by a letter of his own ; and 
of this also the witnesses aforesaid may inform your lordship 
if you be not otherways satisfied. In the meantime, I have 
only thought it my part to give this my testimony of his solemn 
protestation and oath, and withal to send to your lordship the 
enclosed copies of two clauses of letters from England and 
Flanders touching this matter, not doubting but that your 
lordship's charity will move you to admit the same as sufficient 
to clear him of that calumny, seeing there was never any proof 
produced against him, nor yet any ground of that slander but 
the malicious conceit and suspicion of heretics, by reason of 
his acquaintance with some of the delinquents, in which case 
a solemn protestation and oath, as he hath freely and volun- 
tarily made, may suffice both in conscience and law for a 
canonical purgation to clear him from all suspicion as well of 
that fact as of all collusion or double dealing in this his protesta- 
tion, especially seeing he hath always been not only integerrimce 
fames, but also of singular estimation in England for his many 
years' most zealous and fruitful labours there, and his constant 
suffering of imprisonment and torments for the Catholic faith. 
Besides that, he hath been ever since a worthily esteemed and 
principal member of our Society, and given sufficient proof 
of a most religious and sincere conscience, to the edification of 
us all. This being considered, I cannot but hope that your 
lordship will rest satisfied of his innocency in this point, and 
out of your charity procure also to satisfy others who may have, 
by any speech of your lordship's, conceived worse of him than 
he hath deserved ; for so your lordship shall provide as well for 
the reparation of his fame as for the discharge of your own 
conscience, being bound both by justice and charity to restitution 
in this case, as I make no doubt but that your lordship would 
judge if it were another man's case ; yea, and exact also of 
others if the like wrong had been done either to yourself, or to 
any kinsman, dear friend, or subject of yours, all which he is to 
me ; and, therefore, I am the bolder, I will not say to expect 
this at your lordship's hands (because it doth not become me), 



Life of Father yohn Gerard. ccxlv 

but humbly to crave it of you as a thing which I shall take for 
a favour, no less to myself than to the Society; and so this to 
no other end, I humbly take my leave, wishing to your lordship 
all true felicity, this 15 th of March, 1631. 

"Your lordship's humble servant, 

"Thomas Fitzherbert." 

" Ex literis P. ^Egidii Schondonchii Seminarii Audomarensis 
Rectoris 1 Martii 1606 : 

" ' Dum has scribo accepi literas recentissime datas a viro 
claro quibus significavit Dominum Everardum Digbasum, dum a 
Judicious pronuntiaretur in eum mortis sententia, coram eisdem 
pro testatum esse nullum penitus in Anglia Jesuitam hujus rei 
fuisse conscium, Nam, inquit, familiaris Patri Gerardo si quis 
alius, neque unquam ausus fui indicare tantillum, veritus ne 
conaretur frangere nostros conatus. Itaque sancte asseruit se id 
solo ex puro Catholicas ac Romans Ecclesiae zelo neque ullo 
alio humano respectu suscepisse.' 

" Out of the letter of Father Michael Walpole written to 
Father Persons, the 29th of January, 1606: 

" ' Touching Gerard's letter which I have seen, I can only 
say this much, that it seemeth to me to be so effectual, as 
nothing can be more, so that I am fully persuaded that the 
King's Majestie himself and the whole Council remain satis- 
fied of him [in] their own hearts, and his Majesty is reported 
for certain to have declared so much in words upon the sight 
of his letter.' 

" In the end, after his name, he writeth as folio we th : 

" ' This letter is confirmed since by Sir Everard Digby's speech 
at his arraignment, in which he cleared all Jesuits and Priests 
(to his knowledge) upon his salvation. And in particular, 
that though he was particularly acquainted with Gerard, yet 
he never durst mention this matter, being fully assured that 
he would be wholly against it, to which my Lord of Sarisbury 
replied, affirming the contrary, and that he knew him to be 
guilty.'" 



ccxlvi Life of Father yohn Gerard. 

The first extract of the letter enclosed from Father Gerard 
runs thus : 

" It is known to all how those of any blood have loved and 
served King James. My father knew it to his cost, for he was 
twice imprisoned for attempting to set free the glorious Queen 
Mary, the King's mother, and to secure the succession to her 
children : which intent of his own was so clear to the Ministers 
of State, that besides imprisonment, to purchase his life of them 
cost him some thousands of crowns, especially the first time when 
there were but three accused and he one of them, and of the 
other two, one lost his life. Of all which King James was 
mindful when he came from Scotland to be crowned King of 
England, and my brother at York offered him his service and 
that of all his house. ' I am particularly bound,' said he, ' to love 
your blood, on account of the persecution that you have borne 
for me, and of that his love he there gave him the first pledge by 
making him a Knight.'" 1 

The remaining extract concludes our series of exculpatory 
letters : 

" I send your lordship a copy of the three letters that I wrote 
to three Councillors of State, that you may see in them how I 
trusted to my innocence, when I offered to put it to the proof 
in the two ways which I there proposed to them. Further than 
this, though the conspirators had been put to death,, and I saw that 
the course proposed by me to the Councillors was not accepted, 
while the matter was fresh, and I yet in London, I requested of 
our Fathers. that I might present myself in person to the Council 
of State, which I would have done had they but given me leave ; 
and if the Council would have proceeded against me, not on the 
score of religion, but for the conspiracy only, which alone was 
in question, and for which, if they had found me guilty of it, 
they might have done to me their very worst. This request I 
can swear that I made and renewed several times to our Fathers, 
and there are some yet alive who can bear witness to it ; but it 
did not seem good to them to consent to it." 

1 Bartoli, Inghilierra, lib. vi., c. 6, p. 510. 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxlvii 

The matter does not seem to have rested here, unless there 
is some mistake in a date, for Dr. Lingard 1 quotes from a MS. 
copy, dated April 17, 1631, an affidavit made by Anthony Smith, 
a Secular Priest, before the Bishop of Chalcedon, "that in his 
hearing, Gerard had said in the Novitiate at Liege, that he 
worked in the mine with the lay conspirators till his clothes were 
as wet with perspiration as if they had been dipped in water; 
and that the general condemnation of the Plot was chiefly owing 
to its bad success, as had often happened to the attempts of 
unfortunate generals in war." It would seem as if this were a 
repetition of the original accusation, in answer to which the 
letters given above were written. Of the attack on Father 
Gerard, Dr. Lingard says, "For my own part, upon having read 
what he wrote in his own vindication, I cannot doubt his inno- 
cence, and suspect that Smith unintentionally attributed to him 
what he had heard him say of some other person." 2 

XXXIV. 

It remains for us only to give an account of the manuscripts that 
have been used as well in the Narrative of the Powder Plot as in 
the Autobiography of its author. 

Father Christopher Grene, who was English Penitentiary at 
St. Peter's, died in Rome in 1697. 3 This Father was a most 
diligent collector of all the documents that related to the history 
of the persecutions of Catholics in England. 4 He copied volumes 

1 History of England, ed. 1849, vol. vii., p. 549. 

2 There is a letter extant from Father Blount, the Provincial, to the 
General, dated Feb. 10, 1632, which has been understood to relate to the 
accusation against Father Gerard, or to a similar accusation against some 
other member of the Society. It must, however, relate to some other matter, 
as it says, "Vivit enim adhuc author ipse criminis," and that the alleged 
offence took place five years before the entrance into the Society of the Father 
in question. 

3 Oliver's Collectanea S.J. 

4 Father Martin Grene wrote a letter (Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., 
vol. v., n. 69) to his brother, Januaiy 1, 1665, addressed, "for Mr. Christopher 
Grene, at Hilton" [Hilton, i.e., Hill-town, meant Rome, as in the same 
language customer was the Archpriest, physicians were Priests, workmen, 
secular Priests, joumeyinen, Jesuits, &c. ]. His brother had asked him to give 
what help he could to Father Bartoli. Speaking of the Gunpowder Plot, he 
says, ' ' I had once occasion to inform myself of that history, and I found none 



ccxlviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

of such documents, several of which are still extant. In one 
which is preserved at Stonyhurst, entitled by him, Miscellanea de 
Martyribus et Persecutione in Anglia signanda lit. M. . . . incept. 
anno 1690, he informs us that there were various books called 
Collectajiea in the Archives of the English College at Rome, 
distinguished by the letters of the alphabet, of the contents of 
which he gives us an account. At folio 51 we have : "Ex libro 
Collectaneorum in folio signato lit a C in Arch° Coll 1 Angl. hoc 
die 24 Jan. 1689. A relation of y e Gunpowder Treason and of 
Father Garnett's araignm 1 and martyrdome, &c, written by Father 
John Gerard : 'tis y e the original written soon after y e sayd 
martyrdome. It contains 85 sheetes of paper, and is an excellent 
work, and should be printed." After a short analysis of the book, 
the pages quoted agreeing with the Stonyhurst MS. of the Narra- 
tive, we have, "A p. 176 in eod. libro Collectan. C una relatione 
del P. Filippo Bemondo 1 della sua Missione in Inghilt a ," &c. 
The last page of the Stonyhurst MS., bearing the endorse- 
ment, " A Relation of y e Gunpowder Treason, y e execution, &c. 
Also of F. Garnett's arrayment," is numbered 176. The first 
page bears in Father Grene's handwriting the inscription, "Of 
the Gunpowder Treason, written by F. John Gerard, alias 
Tomson, it is the originall." We are thus enabled to recognize 
our manuscript as the commencement of Father Grene's volume C. 

better than the two books of Eudaemon Johannes, the one Ad actionem 
Edouardi Coqui Apologia pro P. Hen. Garnetto, the other, Parallelns Torti ac 
Tortoris. Though the things be there spread and scattered, yet they are (if 
collected) very pertinent to clear Father Garnett and ours ; for example, 
among other things this is one, that the traitors had among themselves made 
an oath that they would never speak of their designs to any Priests, because 
they knew they would not allow of it ; also, that they were specially offended 
with the Jesuits for preaching patience and submission. There are divers other 
circumstances which manifestly excuse ours. I had a relation made me by one 
of ours who had it in Civil [Seville], which clearly shows that the whole Plot 
was of Cecil's making ; but it being only told by an old man, who forgot both 
times and persons, I believe I shall never make use of it. Yet I have heard 
strange things, which, if ever I can make out, will be very pertinent. For 
certain the late Bishop of Armagh, Usher, was divers times heard to say that 
if Papists knew what he knew, the blame of the Gunpowder Treason would not 
lie on them. And other things I have heard, which, if I can find grounded, 
I hope to make good use of. It may be if you write Civil to my brother 
Frank, he will, or somebody else there, give you some light in this business." 
1 This Philip Beaumont was Father Oswald Tesimond, alias Greenway, 
(More, Hist. Prov., 1. vii., n. 40, p. 336). 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccxlix 

The subsequent history of the MS. is related in the two 
following letters, which Dr. Oliver appended to the copy that he 
made of the Narrative. It is only necessary to add that the Rev. 
Marmaduke Stone, to whom the second letter is addressed, 
transferred the Academy of Liege (as it was called after the 
suppression of the Society), of which he was made President in 
1790, to Stonyhurst, in 1794. In 1803 he was appointed 
Provincial in England by the General of the Society in Russia. 
In all probability, therefore, the MS. was given by Father Thorpe 
to Father Stone, at Liege, and by him was brought to Stonyhurst, 
where it now is. 

The following extract is taken from a letter addressed by the 
Rev. John Thorpe from Rome, August 12, 1789, to Henry eighth 
Lord Arundell. 

" The collection of ancient papers at the English College here 
consisted of two sorts. The first belonged to the Stuart family, 
and was deposited there only after the old Chevalier retired into 
Italy. Neither Rector nor any other person in the College knew 
anything of the contents, which were locked up in a strong 
chamber, of which the keys were kept in the Palace of SS. 
Apostoli, and everything was carefully removed to that palace 
several months before the oppression of the Society. The other 
collection related to ecclesiastical matters, from the time of 
Henry VIII. to the beginning of the present century; it had been 
a repository of all papers and letters of many indefatigable men 
in preserving a faithful remembrance of whatever was interesting 
to religion during that period. But different removals of these 
papers, which were very many, had thrown them into disorder. 
Father Booth can tell in what state he left them. I have before 
mentioned to your lordship a MS. relating to our British saints, 
written in the manner of a calendar, in which many curious 
passages of history frequently occurred. I do not think it had 
been seen either by Father Alford (who wrote the annals of our 
British Church up to the year 1180) or by Mr. Wilson, who 
digested the English Martyrology that was daily read at St. Omer. 
Other MSS. of this kind were also in the same place, while I lived 
in the College. Afterwards, when the storm began to blacken over 



ccl Life of Father John Gerard. 

us, divers attempts were made to put these papers into a place of 
security ; but every means miscarried. They never belonged to 
the College, and among what are the College archives many 
very interesting papers remain belonging to the Jesuits. The 
papers above mentioned were finally destroyed by one accident 
or another, to prevent further fears of molestation in those days 
of arbitrary persecution. If anciently there had been any 
valuable MSS. in the old hospital, they were supposed to have 
been removed when it was converted to the purpose of a College, 
because scarce anything more than accounts of pilgrims, house 
expenses, and like articles, remained under that date, and even 
these in no regular order. Thus I apprehend that no material 
intelligence of remote historical facts can be gathered from hence. 
" I will now venture to tell your lordship of a curious 
MS. that a very unforeseen accident brought into my hands, 
at a considerable distance of time from the oppression of 
the Society, and from the total removal of the Jesuits from 
the College. It is a long account of the Gunpowder Plot, 
from beginning to the end in the original handwriting of 
Father John Gerard. It is a folio volume of about 300 pages, 
composed with an extensive knowledge of the persons concerned, 
and of whom several curious anecdotes are recounted. Father 
John Gerard suffered much on occasion of that Plot, wherein the 
prosecutors tried every means to involve him in one manner or 
another. During the plundering and ransacking of the Houses at 
the oppression, such an account was reported to have been found 
in the Novitiate by the notorious Alfani, and it immediately was 
sought for by our countrymen, and instructions were said to have 
come from our Court at London for obtaining it at any price. 
But on further examination that account contained no more than 
relations of the religious lives and edifying death of those Jesuits 
who suffered on that occasion. I have never heard what became 
of those papers, but suppose them to have been destroyed, with 
very many others of no less edification. I must find some good 
place wherein to deposit the relation above mentioned; it is 
very curious, though it contains no new intelligence of the fact 
described in it. It is written with a singular candour that distin- 
guishes the good religious man, and with a politeness that marks 



Life of Father John Gerard. ccli 

the gentleman. Your lordship may signify all this with my best 
respects to Mr. More" [the last English Provincial before the 
suppression], "desiring his counsel on the manner of disposing 
of this valuable MS., every line of which may be esteemed a 
relic for the eminent sanctity of the writer." 

Lastly, we have an extract from a letter written from Rome, 
March 26, 1 791, by the Rev. John Thorpe to the Rev. Marma- 
duke Stone, President of the English Academy at Liege. 

"Among other things with me is one very singular piece, 
which I look upon as a kind of property of your House, at least 
in the light wherein it stood twenty years ago. It is an original 
folio MS. all in the handwriting of venerable Father John Gerard, 
wherein he gives an ample relation of the Gunpowder Plot ; and 
it is, I believe, the only relation extant that was written by a 
person accused of being in any manner acquainted of it. This 
article demands your secrecy, and it is earnestly recommended 
to it; but your counsel is also asked, where and how this rare 
depositum should be placed. Religion has nothing to fear from 
it. A summary of its contents was sent some time ago to 
England, and was in the hands of Lord Arundell. At the time 
of the Society's suppression here, a commission came hither from 
England (supposed to be given by the Court) for purchasing at 
any rate, if any such relation should be found among the Jesuits' 
archives. A long Latin account of Father Garnett's sufferings 
was triumphantly seized among the papers of the Novitiate, and 
occasioned the vulgar mistake of what was sought being really 
found; but the contents, when understood, notoriously demon- 
strated the contrary. This is written in English, in that easy 
devout style for which everything of the writer is remarkable. 
It is a valuable relic." 

Though we cannot exactly determine the date of the MS., 
we can approximate to it pretty nearly. First of all, it is clear, 
from the mention of Sir Thomas Gerard's knighthood at p. 27, 
that the book was written before the creation of baronets in 161 1. 
At page 282, Father Southwell's martyrdom is said to have 
happened eleven years before. As he died in 1595, and Father 
Gerard escaped from England in May, 1606, the Narrative would 



cclii Life of Father John Gerard. 

seem to have been written in the latter part of that year. We 
have, besides, Father Grene's statement that it was "written 
soon after the martyrdom " of Father Garnett, and Father 
Gerard's own assertion in his Autobiography: "I myself, when 
I came from England to Rome, was ordered to put in writing 
an account of the whole affair, and did so as well as I could." 

The original MS. of the Autobiography was accessible 
to Father Grene ; for an analysis of it, " transcript, ex auto- 
grafiho ipsius" in his hand is in the second volume of the 
MSS. kept at Stonyhurst under the name of Collectanea, which 
we have quoted under the letter P. The MS. we have used, 1 
which belongs to Stonyhurst, bears the title, "Narratio Patris 
Joannis Gerardi de rebus a se in Anglia gestis." It purports 
to be a copy from an original at the Novitiate of St. Andrew, 
in the hands of Father Francis Sacchini, the historian. We 
have no means of knowing whether it is the same copy as 
that which existed, according to Father Grene, 2 in the volume 
of the Collectanea called D, in the English College at Rome. 
He mentions it under the title of " Narratio P. Joannis Gerardi 
de tota vita sua. Copia." The Autobiography was composed 
in 1609, as is plain from the mention of Robert Drury's 
martyrdom, which our author says happened two years before 
the time when he was writing. This good Priest suffered at 
Tyburn, Feb. 26, 1607. 

We now leave Father John Gerard in the hands of the reader, 
parting from him with sincere respect, and sharing good old 
Father Grene's affection for him, who in some notes, written in 
preparation, apparently, for an English Menology, has set down 
as applicable to Father Gerard the phrases, " Non ipse martyrio, 
sed ipsi martyrium defuit," and, again, the Church's antiphon for 
St. Martin, " O beatum virum, qui totis visceribus diligebat 
Christum ! O sanctissima anima, quam etsi gladius persecutoris 
non abstulit, palmam tamen martyrii non amisit." 

1 For our translation we are indebted to the pen of Father Kingdon. 
Portions of it have appeared in the Month, and, rendered into French by 
Father Forbes, in the Eludes Thiologiqttes at Paris. 

3 Collectanea M, f. 52 h. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



P. x. and p. 26. — Elizabeth, the mother of John Gerard, was the eldest of 
the three daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John Port, and at her father's 
death, June 6, 1557, Etwall became the property of Sir Thomas Gerard. 
This is the "dwelling-house within two miles of" Tutbury "Castle where" 
Mary Queen of Scots "was kept," where Father Gerard lived when a 
child for three years. Sir John's second daughter, Dorothy, took Dale Abbey 
in Derbyshire to her husband, George Hastings, fourth Earl of Huntingdon ; 
and Margaret, the third daughter, by her marriage conveyed Cubley in the 
same county to Sir Thomas Stanhope, grandfather of the first Earl of 
Chesterfield. 

Father Gerard had three sisters, Maiy, wife of John Denison ; Dorothy, 
wife of Edmund Peckham ; and Martha, wife of Michael Jenison. In the 
British Museum (Harl. MSS., 6998, f. 197) there is a report, dated June 16, 
1595, from Edward Cokayne, evidently a Derbyshire magistrate, of assistance 
given by him to William Newall, "one of the messengers of Her Majesty's 
Chamber," in searches in that county. The following paragraph relates to 
one of Father Gerard's sisters : " The first house that we searched according to 
his direction was the house of one Mr. Jenison, that married one of my Lady 
Gerard's daughters, she being a great recusant, and not her husband : howso- 
ever, it is reported that there is great resort of strangers, but what they be, we 
cannot learn, neither at this time did we find any there, but pictures in the 
chambers according to their profession. Only one West that was a messenger 
between the seminaries was fled six weeks before we came, and whither he 
is gone, as yet we cannot learn." 

P. xii. — It is not easy to reconcile the dates at this period of Father 
Gerard's life. He could not have been nineteen when he went to France, for 
he lived at Rhemes three years, one at Clermont, and about a year in England 
before he was committed to the Marshalsea ; he was a full year in that prison, 
and after his discharge his recognizances were renewed for perhaps another 
year before leaving England for Rome, and he was in the College about 
seventeen months before he was ordained Priest towards the close of 1587, 
when he yet wanted several months of the canonical age for the Priesthood, 
that is, twenty-five. From this we should gather that when he first went to 
Rhemes he was under seventeen, which would have been in 1580. 

On the other hand, it is equally difficult to understand the date given in the 
Douay Diary, August or September, 1577, which would make him fourteen. 
Perhaps this was a visit to the continent before going to Oxford, which he says 



ccliv Life of Father John Gerard. 

was when he was fifteen, spending a year there, and two years afterwards 
with Mr. Leutner as a tutor. Perhaps the reference is to some visit of his 
elder brother Thomas. "1557- Aug. 29 die, advenerunt ex Anglia Mr. 
Paschallus vir nobilis, et quidam Aldrigius mercator: eodem etiam tempore 
adventavit Mr. Gerrardus D. Tho. Gerrardi Equitis Aurati films." 

P. xv. — The following is the entry respecting Father John Gerard in the 
Liber Annaliiim of the English College at Rome: "Joannes Gerardus Anglus 
dioecesis Lichfeldiensis annum agens 23m, aptus ad theologiam positivam, 
receptus fuit in hoc Anglorum Collegium inter alumnos SSmi. D. N. Sixti V. 
a P. Gulielmo Holto hujus Collegii Rectore de mandato Illmi. Hippoliti 
Cardis. Aldobrandini Viceprotectoris sub die 5° Aprilis Anno Dni. 1587, cum 
fuisset antea Convictor per septem menses. 

" Anno Dni. 1587 mense accepit ordines minores, et mense Augusto 

Subdiaconatum, et Diaconatum 90 mense die 16." 

His name appears in the Pilgrims' Register of the English College, as 
having been there received Aug. 5, 1586 (Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's 
Miscell de Coll. Angl, p. 19). 

P. xvi. — The Douay Diary gives us the dates of Father Gerard's arrival at 
Rhemes and his departure thence, together with the names of his fellow- 
travellers. It is clear that if they left Rhemes on the 26th of September, and 
remained at Eu until they could receive an answer from Rome, they could not 
possibly have landed in England so soon as the end of October. " 1588. 
Sept. 21 die, Roma ad nos venerunt D. Rodolphus Buckland, D. Joannes 
Gerard filius D. Thomse Gerard Equitis Aurati, D. Arthurus Stratford" 
[whom Gifford, the spy, called Shefford], "D. Edouardus Oldcorn presbyteri. 
Die 26 Angliam ituri discesserunt D. Jo. Gerard, D. Rodolphus Buckland, 
D. Arthurus Stratford et D. Edouardus Oldcorn." 

P. xxx. — In the Public Record Office (Domestic, Eliz., vol. 244, n. 7) are 
two forms of indictment of Richard Jackson, Priest, for saying Mass, and of 
various members of the Wiseman family for being present at Mass, on the 25th 
August and the 8th September, 34 Eliz., 1592. The endorsement is "Masse- 
mongers. " 

Pp. xlv., Ixx. — In his examination Brother Emerson frankly acknowledged 
himself to be a Jesuit Lay-brother, and "sometime Campion's boy." A copy 
of his examination is in the British Museum (Harleian MSS., 6998, f. 65). It 
is dated April 17, 1593, and bears the marginal note "Ley Jesuite." "Ralph 
Emerson of the bishopric of Durham, scholar, of the age of forty-two years 
or thereabouts, examined before Sir George Hopton, Knight, Mr. Doctor 
Goodman, Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dale, Mr. Fuller, and Mr. Young, who 
refuseth to be sworn, but saith first that he hath [been] in prison these nine 
years — namely, three years and a quarter in the Counter in the Poultry, and 
the rest of that time hath been in the Clink — committed by Mr. Young for 
bringing over of books, called my Lord of Leicester's books as he saith, and 
hath been examined before Sir Francis Walsingham, and before Mr. Young, 
and before others divers times, and was never indicted to his knowledge. 

"Item, he confesseth that he is a Lay Jesuit, and took that degree at 
Rome fourteen years since, and was sometime Campion's boy, and sayeth 
when he took that Order he did vow chastity, poverty, and obedience to the 
Superior of their House, and if he sent him to the Turk he must go. 

" Item, being urged to take the oath of allegiance to Her Majesty, 
refuseth the same, and saith he may not take any oath. 



Life of Father John Gerard. cclv 

' ' Item, he saith he hath neither lands, goods, nor other living, but will 
not set down by whom he is maintained and now relieved. 

" Item, he refuseth to be reformed, and to come to Church, affirming that 
he will live and die in his faith. 

" Item, being demanded whether if the Pope should send an army into this 
realm, to establish that which he calleth the Catholic Romish religion, he 
would in the like case fight for the Queen's Majesty on her side against the 
said army, or on the army's side, saith that he will never fight against Her 
Majesty, nor against the religion which he professeth. 

"Concordat cum originali. — H. Fermor." 

P. liii. — William and Jane Wiseman had one son,. John, and three daugh- 
ters, Jane, Dorothea, and Winifred. The records of St. Mary's Abbey, East 
Bergholt, say that Winifred made her profession amongst the Benedictinesses 
at Brussels, Aug. 6, 1603, where she was called "Dame Agatha." She died 
in 1647. John* who married Mary, daughter of Sir Rowland Rydgeley, had 
two daughters, Lucy and Elizabeth, and an only son, Aurelius Piercy Wiseman, 
who was killed in a duel in London in 1680. The following inscription on 
his grave, in Wimbish Church, is given by Wright {History of Essex, vol. ii., 
p. 134) : "Here rest the sad remains of Aurelius Piercy Wiseman, of Broad 
Oak, in this parish, Esq., the last of the name of that place, and head and 
chief of that right worshipful and ancient family, Avho was unfortunately killed 
in the flower of his age, December 11, 16 10." 

P. lvii. — From the Life of Anne Countess of Arundel, published in 1857 by 
the Duke of Norfolk (p. 308), we leam that, during the Earl's imprisonment, 
"she hired a little house at Acton, Middlesex, six miles distant from London." 

P. cxl. — Father Tesimond relates a search some two years earlier than this, 
in which Father Joseph Pollen escaped capture (Stonyhurst MSS., C, fol. 184). 

Pp. clxvi. and cciii. — Sir Oliver Manners wrote the following letter in 
Italian to Father Aquaviva, General of the Society, from Turin, April 17, 
1 612. shortly before his eldest brother's death (Stonyhurst MSS., Angl. A., 
vol. vi. ). " I cannot tell you what comfort I received from the letters of your 
Paternity. The troubles I then had will tell it better than I can, for, when I 
was seriously ill, my brother the Earl sent to say that I was to expect no more 
help from England, as the King had intrusted my houses and estates to him, 
and -vould not permit him to send me a penny. Precisely at that moment the 
letters of your Paternity reached me, and seemed to me sent by the Lord to 
make me touch with my hand how His Divine Majesty never abandons those 
who hope in Him and suffer for His love ; and as at that time I had a great 
desire of suffering more and more, if so it should please our Lord, so my 
strength returned to me far more rapidly than I could have expected, and thus 
I assured myself that it was the Divine will that I should reach my intended 
goal, there to do something for his service, sive per vitam sive per mortem. 
And so I undertook my journey, and have already reached Turin. To-morrow 
I start for Lyons. In England I cannot expect anything better than that which 
has befallen the Baron" [Vaux], "my companion, who is in prison by the 
.King's express orders, and expects to lose all he has ; for his mother is already 
condemned to the punishment called prcemicuire, that is, the loss of all 
temporalities and perpetual imprisonment, for refusing the oath of allegiance, 
as they call it. The grace I ask from God is so to bear myself that I may 
always show myself grateful for the many favours of your Paternity, as becomes 
a disciple of the Society, and for this intention with all humility I asked to be 



cclvi Life of Father John Gerard. 

armed with your blessing, and I beg to be partaker of the Holy Sacrifices and 
prayers of your Paternity and of all the Society. In conclusion with all 
reverence I kiss your hand." 

P. clxxxiv. — The following is the confidential report [1609] made to the 
General respecting Father Gerard, previous to his profession. By a singular 
chance the paper in which it is contained is the only one of similar reports that 
has come to our hands. It is amongst the Stonyhurst MSS. (Angl. A., vol. vi.). 
Father Gerard's name is the ninth on the paper. We translate from the Latin r 
"Father John Gerard, English, forty-five years old, nineteen in the Society, 
twenty-one on the English mission." [The writer was not aware of the true 
date of his admission into the Society.] " He studied at Rome in the English 
College controversy and cases of conscience for four years." [These four years 
must include his three years residence at Rhemes.] " He was admitted in 
England, where he made his noviceship. He is a very spiritual man ; he is 
endowed with an admirable power of gaining souls ; he has also more than 
middling talent for preaching ; and he is held to be not unfit for government. 
If these talents can supply the defect of learning, taking also into account all 
that he has suffered for the Catholic faith, then he is proposed for the four 
vows. It would be a consolation both to himself and to the many Catholics- 
of note, by whom he is held in high esteem. But if not, then he is proposed 
for profession of the three vows." 

P. cxc. — Among the papers of Sir Edward Phelips, preserved at Montactite 
House, Somersetshire, of which a copy has been deposited in the Public 
Record Office by the Historical MSS. Commission, we have the examinations- 
of two of Mrs. Vaux' servants, one of whom is the "Ric. the butler" of whom 
Lady Markham speaks. 

"The examination of Francis Swetnam, servant to Mrs. Elizabeth Vaux, 
and served her in the bakehouse, taken the third of December, 1605. Saith 
that he hath been a recusant these two years, but will now come to the 
Church, for that he had rather adventure his own soul than loosen his five 
children, but cannot give any reason why he should adventure his soul by 
coming to Church. Saith that he was taken in his mistress' house and brought 
up with her to London, but denieth that he was ever at any Mass, or that he 
knoweth any Priest, and cannot deliver any other material thing to be set down. 
The mark of Francis O Swetnam, Jul. Csesar, Rogr Wilbraham, E. Phelips, 
Jo. Croke, George More, Walter Cope, Fr. Bacon, John Doddridge" (f. 25), 

"The examination of Richard Richardson, butler to Mrs. Vaux. He saith 
he hath served his mistress about six years, and hath not come to Church 
since he was eleven years old. Saith that since Midsummer last Catesby 
was at Harwardds [Harrowden] only one time, which was about St. Luke's 
Day; and Sir Everard Digby was there only twice, the former time about the 
6th of August, and the later time about St. Luke's Day; and that Francis 
Tresham was not there this twelvemonth ; Mr. Rookwood these three years ; 
and that Winter, Grant, Percy, Morgan, were never there during his service. 
And for matter of faith or revealing of Priests or Masses, he desireth to be 
spared, because it concerneth his soul. Richard Richardson, Jul. Csesar, 
Rogr Wilbraham, Jo. Croke, John Doddridge, Walter Cope, George More, 
Fr. Bacon." Endorsed— ■" 6° December, 1605" (f. 32). 

These papers (f. 58 et seq.) likewise contain Serjeant Phelips' Brief for the 
prosecution of Sir John Yorke for complicity with the Powder Plot, about 
1612. The first three of "five general heads " of accusation are : " I. That 



Life of Father John Gerard. cclvii 

Gerard was received by Sir John Yorke both before and "after the Powder 
Treason. 2. That secret passages and places were made for Gerard at 
Golthwaite. 3. That a private diet was provided for him." A few specimens 
of the evidence will show that, whoever it was who frequented Sir John Yorke's 
house, at all events it was not Father Gerard, who never set foot in England 
after May, 1606. Francis Brown: "He hath seen Gerard the Jesuit at Sir 
John Yorke's house called Golthwaite both before and after the Powder 
Treason. He hath seen Gerard the Jesuit within this seven years at least 
twenty times. The last time was at Audebroughe in Christmas last [1610], 
when Gerard lay secret in the house all the Christmas. And once he went up 
into the chamber where Gerard was sitting by the fire. And resteth assured 
that Sir John Yorke knows where Gerard is. That there was no half year 
passed since the Powder Treason but he saw him at one of Sir John Yorke's 
houses, and mentioneth four particular times." The marginal note is, "The 
servants to Sir John Yorke all deny the conveying of Gerard or the knowledge 
of him, whereof Johnson was put to torture and denied it." William Browne 
the elder, "names the place where he met him in North Wales, soon after the 
Powder Treason and before the Proclamation." William Browne the younger : 
" On Martinmas Day was two years, in a Close called Burnings, near Sir John 
Yorke's house, near a ford, he met Johnson on foot, and a man like to the 
person described by the Proclamation to be Gerard on a mare of Sir John 
Yorke's called White Friar." Robert Joye : "As he was working in the hall 
at Golthwaite in the summer before the Powder Treason, about the later Lady 
Day in harvest, Marmaduke Lupton, the steward to Sir John Yorke, came to 
him and told him it was my lady's pleasure he should remove out of the hall 
and work in the buttery. Whereupon he removed into the buttery, and 
Lupton put the door to. Whereat he marvelling pulled open the door a little, 
and saw Lupton bring in a reasonable broad man. And the Lady Yorke 
came out of the parlour and met him in the entry that goeth to the kitchen, 
and up the stairs to the garret she said, 'Welcome, Mr. Gerard,' which this 
examinate perfectly heard, for there was but an inch board between. Mr. 
Gerard was carried up to the garret chamber, and there remained a month, not 
coming openly down. Heard Lupton, Grange, and Almond many times 
severally ask the cook secretly whether Mr. Gerard's meat were ready." 
Sampson Baines : "The Lady Yorke did use to appoint what meat he should 
dress for dinner, and what for the chamber, which was commonly two dishes 
and no more." The margin here has, Margaret Almond : "She carried no 
meat at any time to any strangers, saving such as were her master's and lady's 
friends. She made shift to carry up meat, though she go with a crutch and 
have but one leg." 

P. cxciii. — Father Baldwin from Brussels to Father Persons at Rome, 
May 20, 1606. "Since my last, five days ago, arrived at — 5 (St. Omers), 
469 (Father Gerard), where also is one [Richard Fulwood] "whom 456 
(H. Garnett) was wont to use in all his chief business of passage, receiving 
and retaining of all things. I take it he be 229 (Jesuit) also. They are yet 
627 (secret), and so it is requisite for a time, especially in that the 194 225 
(Marquis Ambassador) brought them, and by his dexterous and courteous 
manner had great care of them. The Marquis of St. Germain came hither two 
days ago, and both he and D. Blasco de Arragon came as well informed of our 
English matters as I could wish. They have made relation accordingly to the 
Nuncio, and this moming to me, who have been with them a long while. 



cclviii Life of Father John Gerard. 

They praise the courage and constancy of Catholics marvellously, and have an 
apprehension of the daily increase of them, as also that the better sort in 
England are inclined Catholicly and such in profession. They speak much of 
the zeal of the Lady of Shrewsbury and of the indignation of the King, who, 
hearing of the manner of Father Ouldcorne's death and requesting all Catholics 
to pray for him and say De firofundis, there were found so many to say that 
aloud, as they were esteemed a great part of the number, and so many by 
signs and voices to have given show of Catholic profession, as all were amazed. 
Thus they report ; and also that Father Garnett was to be executed the day 
which they came away, in Paul's Churchyard, although another writing from 
St. Omers says that it was deferred the day following, for that the day first 
appointed was May Day, and Father Garnett, being advertised of his death, 
should answer, 'What then, will you make a May-game of me?' Howso- 
ever, it is held for certain that he is dead, and that Marquis told the Nuncio 
that therefore he departed the sooner, as unwilling to be present at such a 
tragedy. ... I think Father Gerard may live in these countries after that 
Mr. Owen is delivered (of whom the Archduke mindeth to have great care), 
yet he who is said to have had correspondence with him, one Philips the 
decipherer, is now committed to the Tower. And it were very necessary one 
of ours remain in Paris, for which place Father Keynes might serve for a time, 
at least in that he is not a man noted, and hath the French tongue, as having 
lived there. Father Schondonch is of my opinion, and Father Gerard will do 
well in his place after some month or two, if things alter not much, for he can 
hardly be in any other place in regard of his indisposition, if it be as I have 
heard. I shall soon know more thereof. Father Lee were good in England 
in my opinion, for the consolation of many of ours, and Father Gerard's friends, 
all which I remit to your consideration" {Angl. A., vol. vi.). 

The same to the same, July 3, 1606. "I have not as yet received from 
England from any of our Fathers ; only John Powell, the interpreter of the 
Spanish Ambassador, relateth what passed at the execution of Father Garnett, 
upon the 13th May stylo novo and the 3rd stylo vetere. He hath given 
exceeding satisfaction to all sorts, and much confounded our enemies of the 
one sort and other. He was drawn according to the usual manner to Paul's 
Churchyard upon a hurdle and straw ; his arms were not bound neither when 
he was executed. Such concourse of people as hath not been seen. . . . 
The Spanish Ambassador would not remain in London that day ; he hath got 
his shirt, and some of his blood is sent to Spain, which I have seen here, also 
his apparel is gotten, as I hear. Here now is Richard Fulwood, who telleth 
me that Father Gerard is very sick at St. Omers ; that said you would have 
him come to Rome. I fear me that journey will kill him" {Angl. A., vol. vi.). 

Father Gerard quickly rallied from his sickness, for in less than a fortnight 
after this he wrote from Brussels to Father Persons, under the pseudonym of 
Fr. Harrison. The letter is so characteristic of the man that, though long, we 
give it in full, from the original at Stonyhurst {Angl. A., vol. vi.). 



Jesus . Maria. 
"PaxOi 



: July 15, 1 606. 



"My dear and respected Father, 

"I have received your letters of the last, wherein 

you show your fatherly care and undeserved love unto me, as were sufficient 



Life of Father John Gerard. cclix 

to bind unto you any grateful heart, although he were not tied with former 
obligations. But I am so much and so many ways bound unto you before 
by favours of the highest kind, that these do only tie me unto you with new 
knots, though I was before so wholly yours and so firmly tied that sincerely 
I had rather not to be than be untied. I beseech you, sir, that you will be 
pleased to present my humble duty unto Father General, in whose favour 
though your good word do procure me that place which I can no ways deserve, 
yet this I hope you may promise for me, that I will now begin to do my best 
endeavours, that I may be framed in all things as is fit for a child of that most 
holy family whereof he hath the care, that both by my voice and hands he may 
acknowledge me for his child, the better to deserve the blessing of so great and 
good a Father. I would now acknowledge my duty by letters, but that I am 
ashamed of my Latin, and loath to trouble with so rude lines, unless there were 
further occasion or that you thought it needful. But I hope to come and do 
my duty in person so soon that it will not be necessary to signify it by letters. 
I will stay as you appoint until I have your letters for coming forward, and 
in the meantime will not be solicitous one whit, having no desire in the world 
whereof I would not most willingly leave the whole care unto you, and indeed 
desiring to have no other desires but yours so far as I may be able to discern 
them, after that I have expressed my reasons as I know you would have me to 
do, and after that you know me better and my many great wants, which, that 
they may be more exactly known unto you, makes me so desirous to be with 
you for some time, howsoever it may please you to dispose of me afterwards. 
And if the chief cause why you think it best for me to stay awhile in these 
parts be for that you would have me secret as yet, and especially not to be 
seen with you there whilst the appellants are negociating their uncharitable 
accusations of their brethren, then I suppose you will think I may be fully as 
secret there as here, if I be first waiy in my coming into the town and then be 
your prisoner for some time (which I most desire), and then go to St. Andrew's, 
without visiting any holy places and being seen in the town until you think it 
convenient. And because, in my second and third letters, I expressed my 
earnest desire of this private course at my first coming, I suppose I shall hear 
from you in your next letter or the next but one, that you think best I come 
forward, unless you wish my stay for some other reasons than the desire of my 
being secret. I grant I might perform my desire of some time of recollection 
either in Louvain or in the new House if it go forwards, under Father Talbot ; 
but I have many reasons why I desire first to be with you for some time, 
which I think you would allow of if you knew them. And I would be glad 
also if it might be to begin in St. Andrew's, to draw there some lively water 
out of the chiefest fountain, and this rather in the winter than to come the 
next spring, because I much fear my health if I be there in the heats. But 
after I have been there for some time, for so long a time as you shall think it 
convenient that I stay in that school, I shall be glad to be Father Talbot's 
Minister here, or to have some office of action under him, if my health do 
require any exercise of body. I hear there is one prepared for Minister that 
is very fit, but I could have care of the Church, and then perhaps should 
get some stuff to furnish it from some friends of mine in England ; or I could 
have care of the garden, for I am excellent at that (if you will permit me to 
praise myself), for that was much of my recreation in England, and I hope 
my brother will witness with me that he hath seen a good many plants of my 
setting and tasted the fruit of some of them. But indeed, dear Father, if it 



cclx Life of Father John Gerard. 

may stand with your liking, I would be very glad to see you and be with you 
for some days before I settle anywhere, how private soever my abode there be, 
either at the first or for the whole time of my stay, as yourself shall see it best. 
As for the settling of any with my friends, I have done it before my departure, 
leaving my old companion and dear friend, Father Percy, in the place where I 
was, who is so much esteemed and desired by them as none can be likely to 
be more profitable. Most of my other special friends I commended partly 
to Father Antony [Hoskins], and partly to him, both which are most 
grateful to all my friends and acquaintance, and indeed I know not any two 
there that, in my simple opinion, better deserve it. As concerning Father 
Roger Lee's going into England, if you please that I write justly that I think, 
there be divers reasons for which I think it, at this time, very inconvenient. 
First, in that he is so profitable where he is, that it will not be easy to find 
another will do so much good in that place ; and, in one word to express my 
opinion, for aught I see, the most good of the House, both for external disci- 
pline and for progress in spirit, dependeth upon his care and effectual industry, 
wherein I should think it more needful to provide him more helpers of like 
desires and practical endeavours (who would conspire with him and have 
talents to effect both with the good Rector and with the scholars, that which 
they should together find to be most expedient). The Fathers which be there 
do very well, but are not of like apprehensions aud proceedings, and I 
suppose if yourself did see all particulars, you would think Father Roger to be 
a strong helper to the good of that House, and that it would flourish much if 
it had some others of his like. I know not where to name one upon the 
sudden, unless it be Father Henry Flud [Floyd], whose zeal and practical pro- 
ceedings I think would be very profitable for that House, if he may be spared, 
and truly in my opinion upon the good of that House dependeth much the 
good and quiet of the other Colleges, besides much edification to many, both 
friends and enemies, unto whom this is a continual spectacle. 

"But besides this reason (which alone I take to be sufficient) I wish Father 
Roger's stay for the good he may hereafter do in England, which I do hope 
will be great, and therefore great pity it should now be lost before the fruit of 
so likely a tree can come to ripeness. For, sir, yourself can better judge that 
none can be much profitable in England until he have gotten acquaintance there, 
and until his acquaintance by their trial of him have gotten a great opinion 
and estimation of him, which then they will spread from one to another, and 
every one will bring his friend, who upon hearing will be desirous to try, but 
after trial will say unto the friend that brought him, ' Ja77i non propter 
sermonem hewn credinms sed ipsi,' &c. By this means one shall have, after 
some continuance, more acquaintances and devoted friends than he can satisfy, 
and more business in that kind than he can turn his hands unto ; but this is 
supposing he may at the first go up and down to get this acquaintance, and to 
be so known unto many ; and until he have means so to do, if he have never 
so good talents, yet he shall not do so much good as a meaner person that is 
better acquainted. Now in this time I do verily think, if the laws be put in 
execution, there will be no means at all to get acquaintance, but the best 
acquainted shall have difficulty to help his known friends, and to be helped by 
them with safe places of abode as [I have declared at] large in my last letters, 
and they must lie much still and private and do [good part of] their [work by 
means of le]tters. Therefore, although I know Father Roger would be as 
much esteemed of my special friends as any that could be sent (unless my 



Life of Father yofai Gerard. cclxi 

brother" [probably Sir Oliver Manners] "had served his apprenticeship 
and were made a journeyman, for of his skill and workmanship in framing 
the best wedding garment there is great and general hope conceived) 
yet, things staying as they do in England, and Father Roger so well 
acquainted now with the place where he is, and thereby also more profit- 
able there than a stranger could be, although as fit for the place as himself 
(which truly I think would be hard to find) my friends also being already 
furnished in England : these reasons move me to think it neither needful nor 
best that Father Roger go thither as yet : which yet in a more quiet time I 
shall be bold to beg for, if I see the College where he is so furnished that 
without great loss it might want him. I find Father Roger desirous of England 
if it were thought best, but wholly desirous to do that which you yourself do 
think most convenient, but when I urge him to speak his very thoughts 
whether he do not think the College would be at want, he cannot deny but 
that the College hath need rather of more than less help, and surely I think if 
it were another's case of whom he might with humility acknowledge how profit- 
able he is, I do think he would absolutely do his best to hinder it, as I do. 

"For the answer to your questions, though in my last long letters I did in 
part answer to most of them before I received yours, yet now I will briefly 
again set down my opinion to the several points, Father Baldwin having 
written of them in his last, I being at St. Omers ; but now I am come to him, 
being advised by the physician there to go to the Spa for the drying up of my 
rheum, which here I shall take further counsel of, how far it is needful, and 
whether the great rains have not made the waters of less force. I am here 
private, and more private than I could be at St. Omers whilst the banished 
Priests are passing by. I think I shall hear within two or three posts your 
further pleasure ; if not, I will return and then begin to talk with the youths 
there, or do any service I can as you appointed in your last. In the meantime, 
with many humble thanks for your many undeserved favours, I rest this 15th 
of July. 

' ' Your Reverence's son and servant wholly to command, 

"Fr. Harrison." 

Address — "Al molto Rev. in Christo Padre, il Padre Roberto Parsonio, 
Rettore del Collegio delli Inglesi, Roma." 

To these we must add an extract from a letter of Father Persons dated 
December 29, 1606, and evidently written while Father Gerard was at Tivoli 
(Stonyhurst MSS., P.> vol. ii., f. 477). "The man you name, to wit, Ger[ard] 
passed this way some months gone, but made little or no abode, lest offence 
might be taken thereat, only I can say that during the few days which he 
remained he gave great edification for his behaviour and sundry great testi- 
monies of his rare virtue, but most of all of his innocency concerning that 
crime whereof he was imputed in the proclamation, about which himself 
procured that his General should judicially examine in presence of divers 
witnesses, commanding him in virtnte sanctce obediential to utter the truth 
therein to his Superior, whereupon he swore and protested that he was wholly 
innocent therein, which the rest of his behaviour doth easily make probable. I 
shall cause him to be advertised by the first commodity of the note you write 
about his friends." 

P. 240. — James Garney, servant to Sir Everard Digby, "confesseth the 
journey to St. Winifred's Well and the particular places where they lay, and 



cclxii Life of Father John Gerard. 

that Darcy [Father Garnett] and Fisher [Father Percy] were with them, and 
the whole company thirty horse" (Montacute Papers, f. 52). 

Pp. 240 and 254. — Father Ouldcorne in his letter to the Privy Council 
(P. R. O., Gimpowder Plot Book, n. 214) says respecting the verse of the 
hymn of All Saints: "Also he [Father Garnett] told me they charged him 
with a prayer that he should pen or make against the beginning of this 
Parliament : but he said that he denied that he ever penned or made any such. 
' Perhaps ' (said he), ' they have heard that sometimes this summer I have 
wished Catholics to pray, for that we had cause to fear there would be more 
severe laws made against us this Parliament than had been as yet. Or else 
they have heard how sometimes upon occasions I have told how Cardinal 
Allen had got an indulgence of Gregory XIII. for all those that did devoutly 
for the conversion of England say that verse which is in the hymn of All- 
Hallow Day, Gentem auferte perfida??i, &c, and the Psalm lxxviii., Deus 
venemnt gentes. ' " 

P. 305.— "The Confession of Hugh Griffin, of St. Clement's without Temple 
Bar, tailor: — taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Nov. 27, 1606. 
He saith that the same day that Garnett was executed, one John Wilks, 
a silkman, being come out of his prenticeship two years since, and living now 
amongst his friends in Yorkshire, brought to this examinate's house a straw, 
with an ear upon it, which he said was one of the straws whereupon 
Garnett was laid when he was executed : that the straw and ear were bloody : 
that this examinate and his wife desired to have the straw : that he promised 
they should have it at his going into the country : that they advised with the 
said Wilks to have the straw put into a crystal, for the better preserving of it : 
that within three or four days or a week (as he remembereth) the straw was 
set in crystal, according to the former resolution : that about nine weeks since, 
and not before, he, this examinate, looking earnestly through the crystal upon 
the said straw, with his wife, and one Thomas (who once served, as he 
thinketh, the Lady Beeston, wife to Sir Hugh Beeston), they all together at 
once discovered a thing like a face upon the ear of the said straw : that this 
examinate did first say to the other two (as he thinketh), ' Do you not discern 
a thing upon the ear like a face?' And they answered that they did : that 
thereupon he then (as he thinketh) opened the crystal, and then, upon their 
earnest looking upon it, they imagined they saw a face : that this examinate 
thereupon said to the rest, ' This may chance to proceed from our fancies ; ' 
and therefore desired them to make no words of it, until it were better 
decided : that he kept it in his house about a fortnight, and in the meanwhile 
looked upon it forty times (as he thinketh) and sometimes half an hour or an 
hour together, until he saw the visage so perfectly,, as he is sure he could not 
be deceived: that the face is so perfectly apparent, being once found, viz., the 
forehead, the eyes, the cheek, the nose, the mouth, the beard, and the 
neck, as he supposeth no man living is able to draw the like thing upon 
the like subject : that the said Wilks, when he left the straw in the crystal with 
this examinate, did not (as he thinketh) ever imagine that there was any face 
upon it : that he doth not remember that any but himself and his wife did see 
the said face during the said fortnight, or that himself did acquaint any with 
it : that peradventure his wife might tell somebody of it, but whom he knoweth 
not : that after the said fortnight ended, when he was assured as aforesaid, he 
showed it to Lord William Howard: that Dr. Taylor being present (as he 
remembereth), desired to have had it, to have been showed to the Ambasssador 



Life of Father John Gerard. cclxiii 

of Spain : that the Lord William kept the said straw, and showed it to such 
as he thought fit ; that about ten days after, this examinate received it again 
from the Lord William : that he thereupon delivered it unto Dr. Taylor, in 
the hope of some good reward to be given unto him : that he delivered it, as 
he did never expect to have it again, except it were to borrow it, with the 
Ambassador's liking, to show it to some of his friends that would desire to 
see it : that his lordship kept it some two or three days : that he this examinate 
received it again and showed it to some, but he doth not remember to whom : 
that he delivered it back again to Dr. Taylor within a day or two after he had 
received it from the Lord William : that Dr. Taylor told him how the Lord 
Ambassador made great account of it, had sent it to be seen by the Ambassador 
of Venice, and that he was very loath to part with it : that he delivered the 
said straw to Dr. Taylor as aforesaid : that the Lord William first had it for 
about five days before he, this examinate gave it to Dr. Taylor as aforesaid : 
that this examinate did show it to Mrs. Anne Vaux, when he had it from the 
Lord William, and before he returned it back again to Dr. Taylor after he 
had borrowed it ; that this examinate lent it at that time to the said Mrs. Anne 
Vaux ; that she had it with her a day and a half or two days : that he sup- 
poseth she showed it unto divers : that this examinate was much troubled 
before he could get it again from Mrs. Anne Vaux : that if any affirm that 
there is any light or beams about the said face, he afnrmeth that which is not 
true : that for aught this examinate knoweth, the said face is no more like 
Garnett's face than any other man's that hath a beard ; that he imagineth, the 
face being so little, no man is able to say it is like Garnett : that this examinate 
never did see Mr. Garnett, but when he was brought to the Tower : that he 
remembereth that Mr. Garnett was a well-set man, and had a big face, 
according to his proportion : that though the face seem but little at the first 
view, yet upon diligent looking upon it, it seemeth still to increase in perfect- 
ness and to be bigger ; but that when it is perfectly discerned with the eye, it 
continueth in one and the same bigness : that he verily thinketh, except one be 
told in which husk the face is, he will very hardly find it : that all the said 
perfect visage to be seen as is aforesaid, is contained in the length and 
breadth of the husk of one corn. 

"He also saith upon occasion of further speech, that the crystal wherein 
the straw is set, was his own before ; and that he gave it to the said Wilks, 
that the straw might be put into it : and took order with him that the crystal 
should be set in gold or silver and gilt ; that it is about the breadth of a 
shilling, but made in the form of a heart ; that it is about a quarter of an inch 
thick ; that the straw is nipped off, and the whole ear lieth round in it. " 

P. 306. — Father Garnett to Anne Vaux from the Tower (P. R. O., 
Gunpowder Plot Book, n. 245). " Mr. Hall [Father Ouldcorne] dreamed that 
Father General would have him and me professed. He said that I was 
professed already. ' Yea, ' quoth he, ' but I will have him professed of ten or 
eleven vows more.' And there were provided two fair tabernacles or seats for 
us. And so he awaked, and falling asleep again, had the same dream." Anne 
Vaux to Father Garnett {ibid., n. 246). "Mr. Hall his dream had been a 
great comfort, if at the foot of the throne there had been a place for me. God 
and you know my unworthiness. I beseech you help me with your prayers." 

P. ccviii. — A few extracts from Father Gerard's last letters will fitly close 
these notes. On the 2nd of March, 1637, he writes thus to Francis Slingsby, 
under the name of Lewis Newman, at Dublin. "I was much joyed at the 



cclxiv Life of Father John Gerard. 

good of your worthy mother and sister" [they had just been reconciled], 
"whom I will now more often and more earnestly commend to God ut 
desideria, de ipsius inspiratione concepta, nulla possint tentatione ?nulari. I have 
sent by Mr. Ford (who this day parted from hence to you) small but holy 
tokens to those your two kinswomen, whom now I must repect and love, as if 
they were to me in like degi'ee as they are to you. To you mother a tooth of 
St. Gaudentia, Virg. Mart., and we will use so to write of her by that name, 
which she hath now cause to take and to be vere gaudens, being now filia Dei 
ct hares regni ccelestis, and going daily forward to take possession of it. May 
she not therefore say with the kingly Prophet, Lcctata sum. ... To your 
sister I have sent a relic of St. Xaverius, for I doubt not but she will be ever 
devout unto him, and he ready to protect and help her, she being bom to God 
upon his day. I have sent also a poor token to yourself and one to Mr. 
Nugent" [Father Robert Nugent, S.J.]. . . . "We all do pray for you, 
and your poorest friend will not fail to do it in that manner and measure as if 
all his friends were united in one. I beseech you tell your two kinswomen 
that I will offer for them at these holy places, that being the best service I can 
do them. All happiness rest with you." 

The other letter, dated May 16, 1637, was written to induce Francis Slingsby 
not, to be deterred by temporal considerations from going at once to the Novitiate. 
"Yours of the 10th of Feb. found me in the Spiritual Exercise, in which I 
had received from the goodness of God more comfort than I deserved. But 
indeed the reading of yours was a great increase unto them, to see the efficacy 
of His grace, and His bounteous hand so opened to a person so dear unto me, 
and to whom I much desired no less than all the best. I received much 
comfort to see your so constant perseverance in perfect indifference, and your 
entire resignation to the will of God, to be declared unto you by His substitute. 
And the like contentment it gave to Scarvola" [Mutius Vitelleschi,- the General] 
"himself when he read the same twice repeated in your letter, which I delivered 
unto him translated, that he might judge the better of the case you proposed. 
. . . Scaevola is and will be much better pleased with my friend alone, and 
with the internal riches which he will bring with him, and which cannot be 
taken from him, and which will be much greater by this act of renunciation, 
than if, with less measure of interior goods, he brought with him a much 
greater proportion of exterior riches. Therefore it is his absolute desire 
{omnibus auditis et mature consideratis) this his Joseph do break away from 
the world, though he leave his cloak behind him. God hath clothes enow for 
His servants, and He that giveth feathers to the birds of the air and furs to the 
beasts that live within the earth, will not be wanting to those His chosen 
servants whom He loveth so dearly, and who labour for Him " (Burgundian 
Library, Brussels, MS. 3824, nn. 18, 19). 



A" NARRATIVE OF 
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 



A NARRATIVE OF 
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT, 



JESUS 4" MARIA. 



THE PREFACE. 

The blessed Apostle, Master, and Teacher of us Gentiles, 
instructing the Romans in the cause and means of their 

Rom. s. salvation, affirmeth, that God hath ordained we 
must be conformed to the image of His Son, our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus, "Et quos prsescivit (saith he) et praedes- 
tinavit conformes fieri imaginis filii sui." 1 Upon which place 
St. Jerome and other Doctors do teach that it is the 
will of God, both in this life and in the next, to frame 
and fashion us both in grace and glory unto that most 
perfect pattern. 

So that if we will reign with Christ, we must expect 
to suffer with Him in the way unto His Kingdom, "si 

Rom. 8. compatimur et conglorificabimur : si commortui su- 

2Timoth.11. mus et convivemus ; si sustinebimus et conreg- 
nabimus." 2 Yea, with that condition we are accepted, and 
in that measure we must look to be rewarded, ut " sicut 

2 cor. 1. socii passionum sumus, sic simus et consolationis." 8 

This, therefore, hath been the course and manner of 

proceeding of Almighty God with His elected servants ; 

" For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be made con- 
formable to the image of His Son " (Rom. viii. 29). 

2 " If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with him : if we suffer, we 
shall also reign with Him " (2 Tim. ii. n). 

3 " As you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the 
consolation " (2 Cor. i. 7). 

B 



2 A Narrative of 

even from the beginning, and will continue unto the end 
of the world. So when there were but two men born 
upon the earth, and those brethren, yet one did per- 
secute the other, the wicked did kill the innocent. The 
Patriarchs had all their several probations, and lived 
but as pilgrims in the world ; the Prophets sustained many- 
persecutions, and sundry of them were put to cruel deaths 
for avouching the truth. The best and chosen part of 
God's servants towards the end of the Old Testament were 
proved and purged with many tribulations, they were 
diversely tormented and slaughtered in such manner as 
that saying of the Prophet David was justly applied unto 

i Mac. 7 . them, " Carnes sanctorum tuorum et sanguinem 
ipsorum effuderunt in circuitu Jerusalem, et non erat 
qui sepeliret." 1 And St. Paul doth reckon up in few words 
the many pressures both of those and other Saints of the 

Heb. 11. Old Testament, saying, "Lapidati sunt, secti sunt, 
in occisione gladii mortui sunt, circuierunt in melotis," etc. 2 
So that this being the case and condition of the 
servants and Saints of God even before the law of grace, 
much more may we expect, and it will be expected at 
our hands, that seeing now our King and Captain, Christ 
jesus, doth go before us with a Cross, we should all, and 
each of us in particular, both willingly and joyfully take 
up our crosses and follow Him. : seeing Truth Himself 
came down from Heaven to lead us by Himself this way 
unto life everlasting, good reason we should follow 

joan. i 4 . Him in the same path, "quia nemovenit ad Patrem 
nisi per eum." 3 If Christ did confirm it by many scriptures, 

Luc. 24. " quod oportebat Christum pati, et sic intrare in 
gloriam suam," 4 much more must we contend to enter in at 

1 ' ' The flesh of Thy saints and the blood of them they have shed round 
about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them " (i Mach. vii. 17). 

9 "They were stoned, they were cut asunder, . . they were put to 
Heath by the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins," &c. (Heb. xi. 37). 

3 " No man cometh to the Father but by Me " (St. John xiv. 6). 

4 "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into 
His glory?" (St. Luke xxiv. 26). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 3 

Matth.7. the same gate, although it be narrow and strait, 
especially seeing we enter not into our own but into 
His glory. And it were a monstrous thing that the 
head should go in at one door, and the parts of the 
body in at another ; neither can it be so, unless the 
parts be divided from the head, and consequently not 
quickened with the same spirit that giveth life to the 
body, than which nothing in this world should be so 
dreadful. 

This made the Apostles willingly to accept of that 
portion which Christ did leave them, as it were, for an 
joan. 16. inheritance in this world, when he said, " In mundo 
ib. pressuram habebitis," and again, "plorabitis et flebitis 
vos, mundus autem gaudebit, vos autem contristabimini j" 1 
that knowing well, that His promise was most assured, 
and that their sorrow should be turned in gladness, " et 
hoc gaudium nemo tolleret ab eis." 2 

The same lesson have all the Saints of God learned and 
in all ages have practised. The vineyard of Christ was wa- 
tered for 300 years together with continual showers of blood 
running abundantly out of the holy veins of slaughtered 
martyrs, from whence, although there did rise a plentiful 
harvest of famous conversions and gain of souls, and at the 
last succeeded the peace and propagation of the Church, 
in so much that crowns and sceptres of Kings and Em- 
perors were submitted unto it, yet did not Peter's ship sail 
long with a prosperous gale, though Christ were in 
the ship, Who would not suffer it to sink ; for He did 
sleep again, and suffer the bark to be tossed with many 
furious storms by Arians and other succeeding heretics 
who rising in several ages did impugn the verity of 
our Christian faith, as before the heathens had fought 

1 "You shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice, and you shall 
be mide sorrowful. ... In the world you shall have distress" (St. John 
xvi. 20, 33). 

2 " And your joy no man shall take from you " (St. John xvi. 22). 



4 A Narrative of 

against the divinity of the Father, so then the Arians 
against the divinity and equality of the Son, and others 
in their times and turns against the several articles of 
the Creed, until the Grecians raised war also against 
the third principal part thereof, denying the procession 
of the Holy Ghost from the Son ; and lastly, now, towards 
the end of the world, the heretics of our age, Luther 
and his progeny, do perfect that imperfect work, and 
fight against God's truth in the last articles of the Creed 
with all their force. Wherein, although the fury of their 
raging waves do beat in vain against the ship of Christ, 

Matth. 16. against which "nee portse inferi praevalebunt," 1 yet 
is the ship in the meantime in the midst of the storm, 

Ma«h. 8. " motus autem magnus factus est in mari et navi- 
cula operitur fluctibus." 2 And this much more in our 
afflicted country of England for the present than in any 
other, which now may justly be said to be that "stagnum 

Luc. 8. in quod descendit procella venti ita ut com- 
pleatur navis nostra fluctibus et periclitamur." 3 So that no 
marvel though His disciples be there troubled, though 
yet we should not be terrified, having Him ever present 
with us, " qui imperat ventis et mari et obediunt ei," and of 

Cam. 5 . Whom it is truly said, " Ego dormio, et cor meum 
vigilat." 4 For although He seem to wink for the time, and 
to dissemble the injuries that are done unto His servants, 
yet is His Heart awake, and His will doth both watch to 
defend and ward us from evil in the meantime, and 
He will in time, when He seeth it" fit and best for us, 
impose silence to our adversaries, and give peace to His 
tried servants. 

This is then the state of this present age, and this 

1 " The gates of hell shall not prevail " (St. Matt. xvi. 18). 

2 " A great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with 
waves" (St. Matt. viii. 24). 

3 " There came down a storm of wind upon the lake, and they were filled 
and were in danger" (St. Luke viii. 23). 

4 " I sleep and My Heart watcheth " (Cant. v. 2). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 5 

the course which God hath ever continued from the first, to 
purge and perfect His Church by oppositions, by tribula- 
tions and afflictions ; that He may hew the stones here hard 
by the quarry, which must afterwards be placed in their 
due order and ranks in His heavenly temple, where no 
3 Reg. 6. blows with the hatchet must once be given, no 
sound of the hammer must be heard, that may hinder the 
happiness or disturb the harmony of that heavenly city. 
Here in this vale of misery all are beforehand fitted 
and prepared (as the Church doth sing in a holy hymn 
speaking of the like matter) — 

Tunsionibus, pressuris, 

Expoliti lapides, 
Suis coaptantur locis 

Per manus artificis, 
Disponuntur permansuri 

Sacris asdificiis. 1 

And this being so, and so much to the advantage 
of those who are so exercised and perfected by the same, 
so prepared by crosses to receive crowns of everlasting 
glory, we may gather thereby both what mind they 
should be of, that are in the battle, and what their 
thoughts and actions that are lookers-on. 

For the first, no doubt but remembering Whose cause 
it is we do sustain, Whom we have for our King and 
Captain in the combat, and Who it is that hath promised 
to assist us in our sufferings, and to reward and crown 
us for our labours sustained and victories obtained in 
this spiritual battle. [ 2 As before hath been touched,] 
3 there is no doubt but we should think it most just and 
requisite to sustain all difficulties in the cause of so great 

1 " Stones, polished smooth by blow and pressure, are fitted together each 
in place by workman's hand, and set in order, ever to abide in the sacred 
fane." 

2 The passages in this Preface enclosed in brackets are alterations in the 
original MS. made in another but contemporary handwriting. The erasures in 
the original are given in the footnotes. — Ed. 

3 I say. Orig. 



6 A Narrative of 

and good a Lord, most honourable to follow such a 
Captain, and most comfortable and commodious to serve 
and suffer for such a 1 [Master] and so true and liberal a 
[rewarder] ; and therefore grant that we are bound by 
many titles with ready will and earnest desire, yea, with 
true contentment and assured confidence to bear the 
poise of this persecution. 

But it is no less apparent what in the meantime 
should be conceived of our case, and what should be 
performed by those that are not in the present labours 

Ps. 72. which we poor men are forced to sustain, nor under 
the 2 [scourge] which God for the time doth suffer to be 
laid upon us. No doubt but they also should humble 

iPe. s themselves under the mighty hand of God, con- 

Gai. 6. sidering that their time of temptation and trial 
may also come (as it is an easy matter when one house 
is on fire for the next neighbours' houses to 3 [take the 
same fire]), and withal that they are to conceive worthily 
and honourably of their brethren, whom they now see 
to be tried and purified in the furnace of many tribulations 
by the heavenly goldsmith, thereby the better to beat 
and fashion the metal of their eternal crowns ; with whom 
in the meantime they should concur and cooperate by 
their charitable assistance in prayers and other helps. 

This may well be thought to be their part, and so they 
may expect to be partakers with us also in the retribution, 
which we expect at the hands of God. So doth the Apostle 

2 Cor. 8. counsel the Corinthians, touching corporal assist- 
ance to their absent and afflicted brethren. Having praised 
the Macedonians for the like, he saith, " Non enim ut aliis 
sit remissio, vobis autem tribulatio, sed ex aequalitate. 
In prsesenti tempore vestra abundantia illorum inopiam 
suppleat, ut et illorum abundantia vestrae inopiae sit sup- 

1 Such a Lord and so true and liberal a paymaster. Orig. 

2 Whip. Orig. 

3 To be inflamed. Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 7 

plementum," etc. 1 In like manner may we desire and expect 
help from our neighbours, that they out of the abundance 
of their present peace and power to do us good, will help 
in what they can, every one in that wherein he most aboun- 
deth : Princes with their power and authority, in being media- 
tors for us to our King for some mitigation of our afflictions ; 
courtiers, in often soliciting for this help at their Princes' 
hands ; the Clergy, by often offering the Divine Sacrifice, 

Exod. i 7 . and holding up their hands with Moses unto 
God for us, that we may not faint in the battle ; preachers, 
by often commending our case unto the people ; the 
Religious, by applying their prayers and merit for the 
continuance and increase of our constancy ; and secular 
persons, in such several manners as they are best able 
to perform ; the wise, in commending and justifying our 
cause ; the rich, in opening their purse unto our present 
needs, and maintaining of such scholars as are preparing 
in our seminaries to be workmen for the harvest. Yea, 
the poorest and meanest sort of our Christian Catholic 
brethren [abroad] may assist us much by their good wishes 
and good words when occasion is offered ; and all by 
their daily prayers both to God and His Saints for us, 

E P h. 6. " ut possimus accipere armaturam Dei, et resistere 
in die malo, et in omnibus perfecti stare," etc. 2 And so 
by this means assisting us about our tents and provision, 
either in furnishing or in guarding the same, although they 
be not present with us in the battle, yet will our just 

1. Reg. 30. David give them their share and part in our 
victory and spoils, every one according to the measure 
of his aid and assistance. 

But here, if any do seem to complain of our want of 
constancy and patience in suffering — and some perhaps 

1 " For I mean not that others should be eased and you burthened, but by 
an equality. In this present time let your abundance supply their want, that 
their abundance also may supply your want " (2 Cor. viii. 13, 14). 

2 " Take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the 
evil day and to stand in all things perfect " (Ephes. vi. 13). 



8 A Narrative of 

be rather ready to blame than to pity us, in regard of a 
late attempt of some Catholic 1 [gentlemen] in our country, 
most worthy indeed to be blamed and misliked [for the 
rashness and temerity thereof] — we expect notwithstanding 
more equity and charity at their hands than to condemn 
the whole number for the error of a few, or to ■ deem that 
action the effect of all our desires, or fruit of our endeavours ; 
2 [whereas] the contrary is most true, and so testified by 
the chief of the 3 [conspirators themselves], and proved by 
the process of all examinations and proceedings in law 
against the [said] delinquents, as shall after appear. 

Yea, the 4 [dealers] in that tragical device had so little 
hope of help from other Catholics, either spiritual or 
temporal, towards their designments in that plot, that 
they neither did nor durst impart the same even to their 
nearest and dearest friends, in whom otherwise they had 
all confidence and trial both for secrecy and fidelity in 
sir Eyerard Digby ot h er ma tters, as the chiefest and wisest 

m clearing the society. ' 

amongst them all did testify at the bar in public audience. 
Neither did any Priest once dream of the matter, or so 
much as know of it by way of confession [or otherwise] 
until the 5 [whole plot was] contrived, and had been [by all 
likelihood] put in execution if the Parliament had gone 
forward on the first or second days in which it was 
appointed. But when the said session was prorogued the 
third time, and some of the conspirators in long delays, 
[besides the general light which they presumed to have 
drawn by certain obscure questions which to that end they 
had proposed, though their purpose was not understood 
by them that gave the answers,] were desirous to have 
some [more particular] advice of some one or two of the 

1 Catholics. Orig. 

2 For. Orig. 

3 Contrary party. Orig. 

4 Actors. Orig. 

5 Until the whole matter was plotted and prepared and had been without 
doubt. Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 9 

most learned and virtuous they could find, they opened 
the matter in confession unto one of the Society, and by 
him in like manner unto his Superior, with most strict 
charge unto both of all secrecy, according to the privilege 
and seal of that holy Sacrament. At which time the 
Superior did not only charge the other to dissuade and 
forbid that unlawful and inhuman action, but did likewise 
by all lawful means himself seek to hinder it, as shall 
appear in the sequel of 1 [the ensuing narration]. 

If then they had neither help nor heartening, neither 
counsel nor encouragement from any Catholic 2 [man and 
much less Priests, but rather to the contrary from] those 
few that by chance, and in that most secret manner, came 
to know of it much against their will, how can it then 
be laid unto the rest? How can others be blamed for it 
where all were ignorant of the matter 3 [except only the 
said] two persons, and those did seek to hinder it with all 
their power ? Doth equity or charity permit to lay the 
fault on those that were not guilty ? or to attribute part 
of the blame to those that were noways partakers in the 
crime ? Yea, doth not charity rather move the minds of 
just men to take pity and compassion of those few that 
were offenders [rather than] to be stirred with indigna- 
tion against them, and for their sakes against others that 
G in g E h v°an' 34 ' are i nnocen t - ? " Vera justitia (saith St. Gregory) 
compassionem habet, falsa vero dedignationem." 4 And doth 
not St. Bernard counsel us to excuse the fact if we can ; 
if not (as in this present matter where it is so apparent 
to be evil), yet to excuse the intention ; and in the hardest 
and plainest case that may be, at least to search out 
what motives and incentives they might have urging them 
to such an error. 



1 This discourse following. Orig. 

2 But the contrary from. Orig. 

3 But. Orig. 

4 "True justice hath compassion, but that which is false indignation." 



io A Narrative of 

Truly, if we 1 [may] judge of their minds by the words 
that came from them even when they had no hope of 
life, or by all the signs that were to be seen either in 
those that died in the field, or those that were put to 
public justice, [at the very last instant of their lives,] we 
should rather be moved to think that 2 [not so much] im- 
patience [as] zeal (although " non secundum scientiam ") did 
stir them up to that strange and 3 [violent] attempt, for so 
they all deeply and seriously protested at their death. 
Assuming belike the Machabees for their example, who 
i. Mach. 2. seeing numbers of their brethren to suffer 
patiently the unjust oppressions of their adversaries, an- 
swering only in words unto them and saying, " Moriamur 
omnes in simplicitate nostra et testes erunt super nos 
ccelum et terra quod injuste perditis nos." 4 They would 
not follow the example of their [said] brethren therein ; 
5 [but being of more intolerant heat and fervour than the 
rest, said one to another], " Si omnes fecerimus sicut 
fratres nostri fecerunt et non pugnaverimus pro animabus 
nostris et justificationibus nostris, nunc citius disperdent 
nos a terra." This, 6 [I say, seemed to have been in their 
minds and apprehensions] if we may judge of them by 
their carriage in their greatest extremities, with which also 
they opened unto the world other motives [both at their 
arraignment and death], which they thought to be of no 
small moment ; as the many and great calamities they 
had long endured ; the promises of toleration received 
from the King, now contradicted both in word and action ; 
all hopes cut off of help from other Princes either by 

1 Should. Orig. 

2 No impatience but zeal. Orig. 

3 Desperate. Orig. 

4 " Let us all die in our innocency, and heaven and earth shall be witnesses 
for us that you put us to death wrongfully." "If we shall all do as our 
brethren have done, and not fight against the heathen for our lives and our 
justifications, they will now quickly root us out of the earth." I Mach. ii. 37, 40. 

5 But said one to another. Orig. 

6 This might seem to have come into their minds if we shall judge. Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 1 1 

force or favour, seeing many of them would not so much 
as believe the persecution to be great, but rather give credit 
to their persecutors' tales, seeking by all subtle means 
and many instruments sent abroad for the purpose to 
have the contrary believed in foreign countries; which, with 
the general peace concluded [with all Catholic Princes 
round about], and no peace granted to Catholics, but their 
penalties increased, and like so to continue by the likeli- 
hood of continuance of that flourishing issue with which 
God hath blessed our King (which they thought did alter 
the state of their sufferings very much from that it was 
in Queen Elizabeth's time). These things did seem to 
move them much, and as they thought necessarily to seek a 
remedy, if not for themselves, yet for the relief of others, 
which they being but a few, and out of hope of any help 
from the most and best of the Catholics of England, could 
not possibly effect, [as erroneously they conceived,] but 
by some such stratagem, wherein the chiefest strength 
should be resolution and secrecy, both which in the chosen 
number of so few persons they thought abundantly pro- 
vided for. They took not indeed the course of the 
Machabees, which they deemed in their case to be merely 
impossible. But they affirmed their end to be same 
and their cause and reasons much more important. So 
Catesby protested at his death in the field, and Digby 
at the bar, that not for themselves but for the cause 
of Christ ; not for their wives and children, but for the 
Church, the Spouse of Christ, and saving so many thou- 
sand souls, the children of God, from eternal flames, they 
attempted with fire to cut off the chiefest heads and only 
causes of that greater ruin. "Yea," said Digby [ready now 
to die], " in respect of this cause, I little regard, or rather 
I could be well content, both to offer my life and fortune 
and also to have my posterity rooted out for ever." So 
that if we shall judge of these men by their zeal, or their 
zeal by all the signs by which men's minds are judged 



12 A Narrative of 

(especially in cases of extremity where human respects 
give little cause to move dissimulation), we may the better 
follow St. Bernard's rule and interpret charitably [with 
compassion] their [final] intention, although [their im- 
mediate motives were unlawful, and therefore] the action 
for many and great respects neither was nor is to be 
allowed. 

And if St. Bernard did think this manner of interpreta- 
tion of others' actions to be requisite in the lovers of 
charity, 1 hope then I may much more require that at 
least others will support with patience that act of impa- 
tience in that small number of our brethren and 1 [not 
impute it to the whole number of Catholics ; no, nor 
beyond the rule of charity to condemn the delinquents 
themselves by extreme exclamations and maledictions, 
as some do, but rather according to the Apostle's rule 
in lenity of spirit to have pity of them, and reproving their 
fact, esteem of their persons and other parts, as otherwise 
they depend, of whom myself and many others can testify 
that, setting aside this unfortunate evil action, by all good 
men deplored, they were known and held, before they 
fell into the same, to have been as wise, temperate, cir- 
cumspect, and devout gentlemen as commonly England 
had, and such as would not have committed a voluntary 
injury against any man for a world]. 

Thus we disclaim from all participation of this [fact] 
intended by a few in their deceived zeal. Yet we follow 

1 That they will follow the rule of the Apostle, saying, " Fratres, si prce- 
occupatus fuerit homo in aliquo delicto, vos qui spirituales estis hujusmodi 
instruite in spiritu lenitatis." This is not to condemn them severely, to cry 
out against them, to inveigh bitterly against the men and their minds and 
intentions whatsoever: oh no, "in spiritu lenitatis," saith the Apostle. We 
that be Catholics in England do all with one voice grant the fact to be evil, 
we neither did nor would for a world have concurred with the action ; but we 
pity the persons whom we knew to be otherwise wise and circumspect as any 
they left behind them ; yea, devout and zealous men as any one shall see in 
a kingdom, and divers of them of so tender consciences that they would not to 
save their life have deceived their neighbour of a penny, or wittingly have 
admitted the least offence to God. Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 13 

not the example of those that will not follow the rule 
of charity in their judgments. And much more we do 
and may stand upon the justice of our cause, and prove 
that it is altogether against the rules of reason, justice, 
and charity, to lay the fault of a few upon the whole 
number of Catholics in that country ; who neither did nor 
would have concurred, nor were partakers either by work 
or will in so barbarous a cruelty intended : no, nor so 
much as imagined there could enter such a thought into 
the hearts of any of their company. 

The verity whereof with the innocency of all Catholics 
in that respect will plainly appear by the narration fol- 
lowing of the whole matter how it passed, which at the 
earnest request of some principal friends on that side the 
sea I am moved to set down. And although I know my- 
self much less able than they imagine to pen it in such 
manner as the greatness of the matter and rareness of 
such an event deserveth, yet I hope to satisfy their desire 
for the matter itself, if not their expectation for the 
manner of handling, promising to [set down] the story 
truly as it passed, without partiality to the one or other 
side ; and to conceal no circumstance (whereof I could 
have sufficient information) which may truly explain the 
intentions, actions, and events of the whole matter, wherein 
I had perhaps more helps to know both many and true 
particulars than others could easily procure. 

The whole I intend and offer to God's glory and the 
good of souls : desiring only this of the pious reader, that 
as I will perform my part in truth and fidelity in the 
whole narration, so he will not be wanting of his part 
to perform the rules of equity and charity both towards 
me and the matter I write of; especially towards those 
that in so honourable a manner do daily and hourly 
sustain the cause and quarrel of Christ, not only lf< in sole 

1 Not only "in the sun and dust" but "in blood" also and "many 
wounds." 



14 A Narrative of 

et pulvere," but "in sanguine," also "et vulneribus multis." 
Gai. e. And so Ut alter alterius onera portantes adimple- 
bimus legem Christi." 



Or thus it may end : — 

And so we suffering for the cause and they assisting in the 
cause "alter alterius onera portantes" (according to the counsel 
of the Apostle) " adimplebimus legem Christi." And being with 
charity joined in the works of grace we shall by the author of 
i. Cor. 2 . charity be conjoined in the rewards of glory, "quae 
praeparavit Deus diligentibus se." 

1 " Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ" 
Gal. vi. 2, 



CHAPTER II. [I.] 

THE STATE OF PERSECUTED CATHOLICS AT THE QUEEN'S 
DEATH AND THE KING'S ENTRY, WITH THEIR HOPES 
OF RELAXATION BY HIM, WHEREOF THEY FAILED. 

I WAS desirous by the former chapter to make known 
unto you the state of things how they passed in England 
until the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; wherein though 
I was more long than I had thought to be, yet little me- 
thinks is said in comparison of that feeling which we must 
needs have that live here, and see daily before our eyes 
"abominationem desolationis stantem in loco sancto;" 1 that 
have so many causes to put us often in mind of the 
glory and splendour of the Church robbed and spoiled 
by the first schism under King Henry, overthrown and 
defaced by heresy, beginning to prevail under King 
Edward ; and wholly trodden upon and cruelly persecuted 
during all the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, in which 
all means were used that policy could invent, or power 
perform, to root out all Catholics and Catholic religion 
out of England. 

To which effect they continually devised and imposed 
all kinds of penalties upon such as would profess the 
Roman Faith. They made sundry and most severe sta- 
tutes (as may appear in the end of this book) against 
all practice of Catholic religion. They made it death 
to receive the absolution of a Priest ; yea, death to harbour 
a Priest in house, or to give him a cup of drink, or any 
assistance in his need ; death to persuade any to the 

1 "The abomination of desolation standing in the holy place" (St. Matt 
xxiv. 15). 



1 6 A Narrative of 

Catholic religion. They laid the premunire, which is a 
punishment worse than death, for keeping an Agnus Dei, 
or hallowed grains, or such like comforts of soul, that 
come from Rome. Finally, whatsoever the wit or malice 
of the least pitiful hearts could find out, all that was 
inflicted and laid upon our backs. For commonly they 
were such that were put in authority, either in searches, 
or examinations, or executions — such were authorized, 
such were countenanced, and borne out whatsoever inso- 
lencies they committed against us, of which infinite 
examples might be alleged. As for death itself, though 
it was the ordinary pain of the law against Catholics for 
practice of their Faith (acts of religion being now made 
acts of treason), and so came often in practice ; yet was 
it not so heavy a load as we felt by the other laws, 
and the outrageous execution of them, in far worse sort 
than yet the laws permitted or had devised against us. 
True it is they put to cruel death many and worthy 
persons. One famous and religious Queen, mother to this 
King who now reigneth — an act not oft recorded in other 
persecutions, though never so severe. One also of the 
ancient Earls they put to death in like manner by the 
sword ; two or three others of the chiefest whilst they 
were in prison. Other noblemen died in banishment ; and 
many persons of great families and estimation were at 
several times put to death under pretence of treason, 
which also was their cloak to cover their cruelties against 
such Priests and Religious as were sent into England 
by authority from His Holiness to teach and preach the 
Faith of Christ and to minister the Sacraments. But he 
that would endeavour those things in this time was not 
"amicus Csesaris," 1 and as such, both the Priest himself 
must be condemned and he that would show him any 
favour. 

Of this kind the number was great that suffered (ou 

1 "Caesar's friend" (St. John xix. 12). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 17 

difficulty considered in preparing them, and penury of 
so fit workmen), but their worth was much greater than 
this short treatise can or may contain : it is worthily 
reserved for a more full discourse, and indeed it will 
require a just volume by itself. It shall suffice us here 
to know, that as all were holy and full of spirit, fit for 
men that are sent in such an Apostolical mission, so many 
of them excelled in rare gifts, and for such were known 
and esteemed highly by Catholics before their apprehension. 
There was of them a Campian, so eloquent, and so much 
overmatching the heretics in public disputation (although 
they came fully armed and provided against a prisoner 
after tortures, preparing himself to die), that a courtier 
went from the disputation presently to the Queen, and 
said if that man were suffered to live he were enough 
to pervert the whole realm. Convert, they would have 
said, but that heresy would not permit their tongue to 
tell the truth. There died with him a most valiant 
Sherwin, full of St. Laurence his fervent spirit, and ten 
other Priests, redoubted servants of Christ, each one 
singular in their kind. Amongst whom one other was 
of the Society, called Brian ; a man of such devotion 
to the Passion of Christ, that when he was extremely 
racked before his martyrdom, his mind being fixed in 
the meditation of Christ His Passion, he felt not their 
torments, nor any pain but only a little in one hand, 
upon a lively impression he then had of the pain out- 
Lord suffered when His holy hands were pierced. What 
should I reckon up a Cornelius, so famous in preaching 
that all Catholics followed him as children do their nurse 
when they long for milk, and the man so full of the 
Apostle's charity, that with one fervent speech in imitation 
of the offer which St. Paul made to be " anathema pro 
fratribus," 1 he expelled a devil out of a person whom he 

1 "I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ for my brethren" 
(Rom. ix. 3). 
C 



1 8 A Narrative of 

was exorcising. I know the time and place where it was 
performed ; and where another wicked spirit confessed in a 
possessed person that his fellow was cast out by Cornelius 
his charity. This good Father was the third of the 
Society which suffered death by public justice for pro- 
fession of the Catholic Roman Faith. 

What a famous man, and how much beloved was 
Father Southwell ! whose excellent parts England cannot 
forget; and if it would be so ungrateful, yet his v/orks 
there extant, so full of spirit and eloquence both in prose 
and verse, would suffice abundantly to make the cruelty 
of his persecutors much accused, and his life so shortened 
much lamented, who living would have been so profitable 
and pleasing to all sorts. His value and high merit 
before God was much to be seen, in that he was delivered 
over by God's ordinance to encounter hand to hand the 
crudest tyrant of all England, Topliffe, a man most 
infamous and hateful to all the realm for his bloody and 
butcherly mind ; and this man had Father Southwell many 
weeks together in his house alone to use him at his 
pleasure, where he kept him in his boots as he was 
taken, with bolts of iron upon his arms, and in a chamber 
without any bed or straw to lie upon, where he was to 
turn himself upon his side, and lie upon the floor like 
a dog when he list to sleep, as full of lice as he might 
hold. There also he put him nine times most cruelly 
upon the torture, which Father Southwell at his arraign- 
ment professed was more grievous to him than nine deaths 
could or would have been. About that time also suffered 
at York another famous Priest of the Society called Father 
Henry Walpole, whom first they had tortured fourteen 
times in the Tower, and that in very extreme manner. 
This gentleman was known to be of excellent parts before 
his going over to take that happy course of Religious life, 
in so much that with his sweet conversation and devout 
carriage he won divers to be Catholics even then before 



the Gunpowder Plot. 19 

he was Priest, and it was expected he would have proved 
an excellent workman in that harvest, if the cruelty of 
heresy had not cut him off. But his merits were such 
as God would defer his crown no longer, and so at his 
first landing he was apprehended in the north, and there- 
fore carried thither again to be executed, after they 
had hi vain made trial at London to make him confess 
by torments something against the state of Catholics 
and their profession or practice. When he came to die 
all men admired his patience, and religious humility, and 
mortification, wherein he very much excelled. 

It were too long, and not for this place to reckon 
up the great number of rare men both Religious and 
Secular Priests that suffered in Queen Elizabeth's times, 
" quibus dignus non erat mundus." 1 But yet this persecution 
by death, though it were cruel to them that suffered, 
and most injurious to the Catholics that were by that 
means bereaved of their most beloved Fathers, yet were 
the persecutions in other respects more grievous to be 
borne and much more intolerable. Their torturing of 
men when they were taken to make them confess their 
acquaintance and relievers, was more terrible than death 
by much, as Bl. Father Southwell professed at the bar ; 
and this the rather both because the pain continued longer 
and was often iterated, and chiefly for that it was not 
an end of their probation in this world, but many after 
such torments are forced to walk on their voyage towards 
Heaven for many years, being uncertain of their per- 
severance in that estate of fervent love to God with which 
they offered themselves for Him to torments, and would 
more gladly have done it unto death, if such had been 
His pleasure at that time. 

Besides the spoiling and robbing laymen of their 
livings and goods, with which they should maintain their 
families, is to many more grievous than death would be, 
1 " Of whom the world was not worthy " (Heb. xi. 31). 



20 A Narrative of 

when those that have lived in good estate and countenance 
in their country shall see before them their "whole life 
to be led in misery, and not only themselves, but their 
wives and children to go a-begging. And some, in like 
manner, that lose not all at once, but have somewhat 
left, are worse than the rest, for they have not so much 
as is proportionable to their charge, and yet being known 
to have something, can have no colour to live on alms, 
as others do (even some of very worshipful families), and 
live much better than diverse of these that have this 
little left them. 

And to these the continual and cruel searches, which 
I have found to be more terrible than taking itself. The 
Insolencies and abuses offered in them, and in the seizures 
of goods, the continual awe and fear that men are kept 
in by the daily expectance of these things, sith every 
malicious man (of which heresy can want no plenty) is 
made an officer in these affairs, and every officer a King, 
as it were, to command and insult upon Catholics at 
their pleasure. These, and the like aggrievances, Catholics 
having now sustained during the whole reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, was it not now time for them to hope that 
God would say unto them, " Levate capita vestra quia ecce 
appropinquat redemptio vestra?" 1 We had now suffered 
more than the full number of years, not days, of this 
deluge of persecution pouring down upon us. Was it 
not now T time for us to look out and to long that the 
earth would begin to dry and afford us some quiet habi- 
tation upon it ? Were we not now to expect that some 
gracious bird would bring us an olive branch in sign of 
peace, which we had looked for so long and desired so 
much ? True it is that most Catholics had great hope 
and expectation of this King James, then King of Scotland 
only. And this hope, as a human help of no small force 

1 "Lift up your heads because your redemption is at hand" (St. Luke 
xxi. 25). 



the Gtinpowder Plot. 21 

did join with God's grace and bring some comfort with 
it, amidst the many discomforts sustained under the long- 
continued reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

First, they did, and might, expect that the son of 
such a mother (who not only lived a Catholic in her 
kingdom and in prison, but died also because she was a 
Catholic) would himself also be a friend to Catholics at 
least, if he would not be a follower of Catholic religion. 
St. Monica, by her tears and prayers, did win her son, 
St. Augustin ; the hope was also in England that " filius 
tantorum meritorum perire non poterat." 1 And who could 
think that the son would join in friendship and confidence 
with them, and with only them that had betrayed and 
slain both his father and mother, and who had kept 
himself so long like a ward in his own kingdom. Besides 
they could see no cause why King James should follow 
the course that Queen Elizabeth had done. For she in 
the beginning of her reign was persuaded by her Council 
that for reason of State it was needful she should break 
with the See Apostolic and maintain the new religion, 
that might depend upon her supremacy and supreme 
authority expressed by the laws of Parliament. This 
they pretended to be needful, first, in respect of her 
nativity, which they knew was not esteemed legitimate 
by the See of Rome. Again, in regard of the particular 
favour which it was known the same See did bear unto 
Queen Mary, then Dowager of France and Queen of 
Scotland, living and reigning there in all prosperity ; who 
therefore was much envied and feared by Queen Elizabeth 
and her Council at that time. Unto which also was 
added the well-known affection of all Catholics in England 
unto the said Queen Mary, in respect of her true descent 
from King Henry VII. and her constant love and pro- 
fession of the Catholic faith : these seemed great motives 
to Queen Elizabeth, and sufficient to lead her into the 

" The son of such great merits could not perish.'"' 



22 A Narrative of 

labyrinth of an heretical course. But these could not be 
objected unto our King James, who was the true and 
hopeful issue of his so worthy mother and the same so 
glorious a martyr. Neither could he fear the favour or 
furtherance of the See Apostolic, which favoured him 
much and assisted him many ways whilst yet he was 
but King of Scotland and professed a contrary faith. 
What might he then have expected if he had offered 
himself and his realm of England unto the obedience of 
the Church, if he had trodden that path which all his 
ancestors had walked, and wherein both they and the 
kingdom of England did so much flourish. Yea, what 
applause, what congratulation, what assurance of friend- 
ship and assistance against all his enemies might he 
have expected as most certain, both from His Holiness, 
and the like from all Christian Princes ? Yea,', truly, 
this seemed so strong a reason to induce His Majesty 
to that happy course, that many Catholics, knowing his 
wisdom and learning, could not persuade themselves how 
it could be possible that he would be drawn to any other 
manner of proceeding, especially seeing that as on the 
one side all peace with the Christian world was sure to 
be knit in firmest league of friendship ; on the other side, 
they could not see how he could expect any long or 
assured peace with the pillars of God's Church, if he 
should begin to persecute the same afresh, as the late 
Queen had done before him. For it were in vain to begin 
that war against the Church, if he meant not to do his 
best endeavours to root out the same out of the world,, 
if he could ; because he might be sure the more he pro- 
ceeded therein the more he would exasperate both God 
and all good men against him. This mind Catholics 
could not expect in a Prince of so great judgment and 
so many good parts, as they had cause to think him to 
be of. These hopes also were much strengthened by his 
own words, published unto the world in that fatherly and 



the Gunpowder Plot. 23 

princely gift of his unto his son, wherein amongst many 
other grave and wise documents unto the young Prince, 
one is, that he do cherish and make much of those servants 
whom he hath known to be faithful unto his parents, of 
which his counsel he first giveth divers true and judicial 
reasons, and afterwards confirmeth the same with his own 
experience, affirming in plain words he found those most 
true and trusty to himself who had been faithful followers 
of hers, and so on the contrary side in like manner. To 
this effect His Majesty delivered his mind unto his son, 
and therewith great and comfortable hopes unto all 
Catholics, that they who had been true lovers and followers 
of his mother should find favour, and that such as had 
either done or suffered greatly in her service should find 
an answerable requital and advancement. 

These hopeful signs of future favour were yet much 
in particular confirmed by the constant report and asseve- 
ration of divers, who in the said Queen Elizabeth's reign 
had lived under His Majesty in Scotland, as well English 
as of the Scottish nation, who did everywhere affirm and 
divulge both at home and abroad, and in all Princes' 
Courts of the world (as it is well known to the said 
Princes), the great and singular hope and expectation 
that was to be conceived of this King for his good nature 
and rare parts, as mansuetude, compassion, equanimity, 
high esteem of his said mother and of all those that had 
faithfully loved and served her. And albeit that for his 
religion he could be no other than as he had been brought 
up and instructed, yet was he averse from all severity of 
persecution against such as were of different religion, 
especially the Catholic ; granting it to be the ancient 
mother religion of all the rest, though in some things now 
amiss in his opinion. And that out of his own reading 
he had observed that all his ancestors, Kings and Queens 
both of England and Scotland, without exception had 
been of the Catholic Roman faith and religion, and that 



24 A Narrative of 

himself was the first among them all that ever professed 
a different religion from them. These reports were spread 
by many and in many places. But some others more 
particular and assured are said to have been sent by 
particular embassagies and letters from His Majesty unto 
other Princes, giving hope at least of toleration to Catholics 
in England, of which letters divers were translated this 
year into French and came so into England, as divers 
affirmed that had seen them. Yea, and further than 
this, I am well assured that immediately upon Queen 
Elizabeth's sickness and death, divers Catholics of note 
and fame, Priests also, did ride post into Scotland, as 
well to carry the assurance of dutiful affection from all 
Catholics unto His Majesty as also to obtain his gracious 
favour for them and his royal word for confirmation of 
the same. At that time, and to those persons, it is certain 
he did promise that Catholics should not only be quiet 
from any molestations, but should also enjoy such liberty 
in their houses privately as themselves would desire, and 
have both Priests and Sacraments with full toleration and 
desired quiet. Both the Priests that did kneel before him 
when he gave this promise (binding it with the word of 
a Prince, which he said was never yet broken), did protest 
so much unto divers from whom I have it. And divers 
others, persons of great worth, have assured me the same 
upon the like promise received from His Majesty, both 
for the common state of Catholics and their own particular. 
Now, more than this I think could not be; to give 
assured hope unto Catholics of some present relaxation 
by his gracious help from the many miseries and afflictions 
they had so long endured, being as much as they could 
expect or he perform until his settling. How ready 
Catholics were in all countries to receive him for their 
King, how forward to proclaim him, yea, how joyful to 
entertain and welcome him with all care and cost that 
might be, all the realm is witness. Insomuch that some 



the Gimpowder Plot. 25 

set vessels of wine in the streets for all comers to drink, 
in show of their gladness ; other Catholic noblemen at 
London cast store of money about the streets in sign of 
their universal joy. What cost all sorts of Catholics 
bestowed upon such furniture as was fit to welcome and 
meet both King and Queen, with the Prince who came 
at several times ! All was done with such applause and 
jubilee as did well witness the joy and hopes they had 
conceived. 

But now what shall we think to have been the state 
of all Catholic minds when all these hopes did vanish 
away ; and as a flash of lightning, giving for the time a 
pale light unto those that sit in darkness, doth afterwards 
leave them in more desolation ? What grief may we 
imagine they felt generally, when not only no one of 
these hopes did bring forth the hoped fruit, nor any 
promise was performed, but when, on the contrary side, 
His Majesty did suffer himself to be guided and as it 
were governed by those that had so long time inured 
their hands and hardened their hearts with so violent 
a persecution ; yea, when he did not only confirm the 
former laws with which we were afflicted, but permitted 
new and more grievous vexations to fall upon us than 
before we had felt, and prepared yet more and more heavy 
whips wherewith to scourge us ? Truly the event proved 
contrary to all. our hopes. For, first, it was observed 
that some weeks after his being in England, he began 
to use far different speech of and against Catholics than 
was expected from the son of such a mother. And when 
soon afterward there ensued his first Parliament, he made 
a bitter speech (now extant in print) against them all ; 
but especially, to our greater increase of grief and despair 
of comfort, against the See Apostolic, much different from 
that was expected, where so great favours and tokens of 
love had been received. 

Now, whereas Catholics expected his published and 



26 A Narrative of 

promised honour to his mother and rewards unto her 
servants, it grieved them much when they saw no memory 
at all made of so memorable a mother either in word or 
work ; she lying until this day obscurely in that place 
where her enemies cast her after cutting off her head : 
nor any man gratefully looked on or respected that 
belonged unto her or that made mention of her. As for 
those that did or suffered anything in her cause and 
quarrel, there is not any advanced nor yet recompensed 
for the great losses which some of them sustained in her 
behalf. Not long after the said Queen's imprisonment 
in England, there were three, two knights and one gentle- 
man, that intended her deliverance and assistance to her 
settling again in her kingdom of Scotland [one of the 
three was Sir Thomas Stanley, next brother to the Earl of 
Derby, who had much land and many friends in that 
country where she was prisoner ; the second was Sir 
Thomas Gerard, whose dwelling-house was within two 
miles of the castle where she was kept, and at that time 
had means sufficient to do good service in that behalf; 
the third was one Mr. Roulston, an esquire of good 
worth in the same country, and a very devout Catholic 
man and a stout gentleman]. 1 The meanest of which 
three had a son, being then a pensioner in the Court, who 
betrayed the whole matter and caused them all to be 
clapt in the Tower,, where they were kept a long time 
in strait prison, and Mr. Roulston was condemned to die, 
against whom they were able it is likely to prove more 
particulars of the secret (by his son's means), than against 
the others. But it cost the others large sums of money 
and sale of land before they could be freed. 

After this, about twenty years ago, there was another 
matter intended by fourteen gentlemen, Mr. Babington, 
Mr. Salesberie, and others of the choice of England, for 
the said Queen's deliverance and restoring to her right ; 

1 The passage within brackets is erased in the original. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 27 

wherein, though they were ensnared and entrapped by- 
some politic heads that sought both their overthrow 
and thereby a seeming justifiable pretence to cut off the 
said Queen also, yet it was apparent by their examina- 
tions and executions, taking their death in so devout 
and resolute manner, that they intended sincerely the 
Queen's delivery for the advancement of the Catholic 
cause. At the same time, also, one of the foresaid knights 1 
was again committed to the Tower for the same cause, and 
kept there at least two years, though he had been . so 
wary of his trust that they could not . prove anything 
against him to put him to death with the rest ; but it 
cost him much this time again, as that prison is ever 
wont to do to those that live in it, but especially to those 
that get out. Nor these nor any others of like deserts 
in. other kind have, been rewarded. True it is that the 
elder son of the knight, 2 going to meet the King at 
his coming into England, His Majesty told him before 
divers (from whom I had it), "That he must love his 
blood, for that he and his had suffered persecution for 
him." These were his words, showing indeed in His 
Majesty a good consideration of his servants and inclina- 
tion to do for them ; . but it is likely that others overrule 
the matter, for, 3 though he made that gentleman knight 
at that time, yet that was to him no advancement whose 
ancestors had been so for sixteen or seventeen descents 
together; but since he hath had no preferment at all, 
but rather kept back, as being known that his house 
hath ever been Catholic, though himself having long time 
followed the Court do not profess it as he should. 

Another 4 worthy gentleman also, one Mr. Abington, was 
in the Tower for the same cause when the fourteen gentle- 



1 Sir Thomas Gerard. Erased in orig. 

2 Sir Thomas Gerard. Erased in orig. 

3 Underlined in orig. probably for erasure. 

4 This whole paragraph is marked in the original. 



28 A Narrative of 

men were there prisoners. And this gentleman, having lately 
some Priests taken in his house, was condemned to die ; 
and though his life be spared for a time (they say, in 
respect of his former suffering ; but, indeed, obtained by 
the Lord Mounteagle, whose sister he hath married), yet 
is his house taken from him, one of the fairest in all 
the country, and all his lands and goods forfeited : which 
5s much more grievous than death to a man of his devotion 
and resolution. These and many such examples are seen 
and noted in the realm, and not any seen to be advanced 
nor regarded that truly served or suffered for his mother : 
yea, rather the contrary ; p that His Majesty was so pre- 
vented and preoccupated with divers that pursued and 
both sought and wrought the ruin of his mother, that he 
seemed to give himself wholly into their hands, and not 
only himself but Catholics also, to be afflicted by them 
at their pleasure. 

All this, we say, moved great exasperation and exul- 
ceration of minds, mixed with grief and despair, foreseeing 
that all would pass worse for Catholics under his reign 
than in Queen Elizabeth's time ; when those that did 
persecute under her were doubtful what side might prevail 
or bear sway after her death, and therefore would be 
more sparing, and divers would seek to make the 
principal Catholics their friends against those times of 
uncertain event, which could not be far off in respect of 
the great age of Queen Elizabeth and her want of issue ; 
whereas now no such fear is thought needful nor any 
such caution in policy requisite, the King being young 
and his issue like to continue and to uphold their pro- 
ceedings : so that they may more freely and without 
fear persecute at their pleasure. Besides unto this general 
fear, which all Catholics had in seeing these former hopes 
of theirs to fail them, was added a full experience that 
neither hopes were to be by them expected nor promises 
by others to be performed. For whereas His Majesty, 



the Gunpowder Plot. 29 

out of his gracious disposition, had promised much favour 
towards Catholics, both to other Princes and to divers 
particular Catholics that went unto him before his coming 
in, now the contrary was so much practised and all these 
promised favours so plainly denied, that they might not 
be so much as once spoken of or remembered that ever 
any such had been. 

For, first, when at the end of the first Parliament 
the Puritans packed together therein, as well against 
His Majesty and his desires in the matter of union of 
the two kingdoms as also against the Catholics, and 
urged many new laws to their prejudice and for their 
greater affliction, His Majesty, that with one word might 
have staid their fury by saying (as it is accustomed in 
such cases when a Prince will show favour) that he would 
deliberate and consider of the matter, he confirmed first 
all the most sharp and rigorous laws and statutes which 
the late Queen or her father or brother had made against 
Catholics for afflicting them or shedding their blood. 
And, secondly, he adjoined new statutes of his own that 
augmented greatly the grievances of the former (which 
afterwards shall be set down), so as every sort of men, 
but especially the Puritans (that by all means desired 
to make the King odious unto Catholics), applied unto 
them presently those words of the young King Roboam 
to his aggrieved people — " My father pressed you with a 
grievous yoke ; but I will aggravate the same yet more. 
My father beat you with whips ; but I will scourge you 
3 Reg. 12. with scorpions." So that it is easy to guess 
with what terror and affliction the Catholics remained 
at that time. By all which we may plainly see, that 
not only all hopes were failed whereupon Catholics did 
build their comforts, but that it was also seriously 
endeavoured by some to give now all assurance of the 
contrary opinion, and so to drive men to despair, pre- 
suming perhaps that some amongst so many thousands 



30 A Narrative of 

would not be so patient as to bear it long, but that 
despair would urge them to some desperate attempt, 
whereby the chief causers of this persecution might give 
the better pretence of the cruelty they intended against 
them for the satisfaction of foreign Princes, that they 
might suppose these laws to be afterwards devised and 
not before determined or practised. And it is no marvel 
though divers Princes have been long in this error, knowing 
not the state of things with us ; yea, rather being pos- 
sessed of a contrary opinion to the truth of our sufferings 
by instruments employed of purpose, as also their whole 
estates were in like manner by the ordinary news, which 
were written in the gazettes to the end to be divulged. 
But Catholics that felt . the smart before, had cause to 
believe the contrary, and that they deceived one blow 
upon the face with the fist, to make them fetch another 
against the wall. Yea, it is verily thought by many of 
the wiser sort, that these very things, with others that 
followed, were the spurs that set those gentlemen upon 
that furious and fiery course which they afterwards fell 
into; and being otherwise too forward of themselves, and 
not apt in those things to be retained with the bridle, 
did urge them to take the bit in their teeth and run 
headlong (being thus filled with despair of any good 
from this King's government) to that desperate course 
of cutting off the same to set up one of his younger 
children — a thing very much lamented by all the body of 
Catholics in England, whose thoughts were only bent 
how to possess their souls in patience, notwithstanding 
all the causes of grief and despair of remedy which I 
have alleged, and more that I must allege in the chapter 
following. 

1 Were first beat till they cried, and then beaten for crying. Erased in 
crig. 



CHAPTER III. [II.] 

THE INCREASE OF PERSECUTION AND ALL KIND OF 
MOLESTATIONS UNTO CATHOLICS, WITH THEIR FAIL- 
ING OF ALL HOPES, PROCURED BY THE PURITAN 
FACTION. 

SUCH as be acquainted with the state of affairs in England 
cannot be ignorant that there be many at this time of the 
Puritan faction put in authority and place of government, 
especially concerning the persecution of Catholics. All 
which, as they be further gone in heresy than the ordinary 
sort of moral Protestants be, so are they more violent 
enemies against all Catholics and Catholic proceedings. 
And this not only in respect of that spirit of heresy, 
which doth in greater measure possess them, but for 
reason of policy also they hold it very requisite. For 
although the Protestants are at this time the chief in 
Government, and their laws and ordinances preferred both 
in ecclesiastical and secular causes, yet are not the Puritans 
out of hope (if the Catholic party were taken away) to 
prevail against them in time, either by force or friendly 
means procured from their complices in other countries, 
in which kind they are much stronger than the Protestants, 
or else by force of argument and the Word, wherein they 
persuade themselves to have great power. And true it is, 
that under the pretence of more pure profession of Calvin's 
doctrine and a greater outward show of a more formal 
religion, they do win daily some or other new-fangled 
heads unto their sect from the Protestants, whose grounds 
are more uncertain to themselves, and nothing certain 
unto them but the following of the will and pleasure of 



32 A Narrative of 

those that guide the State, whatsoever they hold or ordain 
to be professed or practised. But as for the Catholics, 
they are holden and tried by the Puritans and the other 
also to be inflexible for matter of their faith, as having 
most sure and infallible grounds to rest upon, alleging 
for the same all kind of authority, showing antiquity 
with universal consent of all nations ; and remaining now, 
as others of their side have done before them, in perfect 
union amongst themselves in all points of their belief. 
So that the Puritans having no hope at all that ever 
their private spirit shall be able to prevail against such 
an army of impregnable proofs by force of reason or 
argument they seek therefore, by all means they can 
devise, the overthrow of Catholics much more earnestly 
than the Protestants do, who are in themselves commonly 
less violent ; and being placed at the helm in the chief 
seats for commodity and honour, are content to rest when 
they are well, and are not so busy and stirring as the 
Puritans are, whose rising spirit cannot be at rest until 
they be in possession of that which the others enjoy and 
they desire. Hereupon it followeth that the Puritans are 
most forward continually to incense the King against us ; 
most violent also to execute all laws, and lay all kind of 
molestations and afflictions upon us, and besides most 
desirous of all occasions whereby to put us utterly in 
despair of help or favour, and so to force some or other 
to unfit courses, that the rest may be punished for their 
sake. And truly, as they were the men that did frame 
the Bills against us in the first Parliament after the King's 
entry, and did follow the matter most hotly to have both 
the former cruel laws remain in force and new penalties 
imposed upon Catholics, so when His Majesty had granted 
and confirmed all their desires against us, it is strange 
to see with what fury they sought in all places to execute 
the same cruelties — yea, much further in most places than 
the laws themselves did allow or would permit. And it 



the Gunpowder Plot. 



33 



is to be noted, that although the Puritans are not generally 
put in authority or used for the government of the Com- 
monwealth (as men known to bear but hollow hearts unto 
the King, and to be much disgusted with his proceedings), 
yet are they ordinarily employed in the punishing and 
executing all kind of rigour against Catholics, as being 
tried by experience to be most vigilant in finding them 
out, most violent in afflicting them and most pitiless in 
their pains. So that in every shire, those Justices which 
be known to be most forward in the Puritan faction, 
though otherways they be little employed in matters of 
the country or esteemed of by the State, yet they are 
the men that are put in commission against Catholics — 
they are the searchers, they are the informers, they are 
the Judges, and they are made, as it were, the kings 
of Catholics. 

From hence it came that the pressures of Catholics 
were much increased after the first Parliament and 
before that rash attempt of those gentlemen who 
were urged to that conspiracy (as most men think in 
those parts that know how things passed) by extremities 
which they saw to increase so fast, and their despair of 
helps in vain expected. For then presently, the execution 
of all laws against Catholics, both old and new, being 
committed for the most part to the Chief Justice, who 
is known to be hot and vehement in the Puritan faction 
and a bloody enemy to the said Catholics ; and he, by 
direction of others and his own desire, having picked out 
men in every shire of the same humour to execute the 
same laws with all the rigour and despite they could 
^"^onVlthoii?! 1 ^ 5 devise. Then followed afresh the exac- 
tion of 20/. 1 a month, which was imposed by Queen 
Elizabeth upon every Catholic that would not go unto 
their service, although for a time after the King's coming 
there was hope given both by King and Council that it 

1 Interlined 80 crowns and in another hand 88 at least. 
D 



34 A Narrative of 

should not be exacted : but then the whole was urged 
together with the arrearages. Yea, and not contented with 
twelve months in the year (as Nature hath appointed by 
course of the sun), they would have the payment for 
thirteen months in the year, after the account of four 
weeks in the month, contrary to the rule of ancient law 
affirming that Parnce non sunt ampliandce. But if Catholics 
could enjoy for this payment any reasonable quiet, they 
would think themselves in great ease. But there is a 
law for the poorer sort of Catholics, that they shall forfeit 
two parts of their lands and leases, and all their goods 
and chattels whatsoever that can be found ; upon which 
law (being executed as the Puritans use to do) many 
and great molestations do further ensue ; for by this 
means they are not only indicted and cast into jails and 
prisons and their lands seized, as the statute alloweth, 
but also their goods embezzled and their cattle driven 
away. And if they find no cattle which they are assured 
to be the recusants', but that his fields be rented and 
stocked by other men, they drive that cattle also and 
put them to prove whose they were ; and thereby terrify 
all men from hiring their said lands, wherein they also 
add diverse other particular afflictions that exasperate 
greatly the sufferer. These matters being committed 
for the most part to their handling, that care not how 
much or how far they strain poor Catholics, whereof no 
marvel if it come to pass according to the proverb — Qui 
nimiunt emungit elicit sanguinem — " He that scrapeth or 
rubbeth too much, draweth blood at last." 

It hath been also a matter of no small grief and com- 
plaint, that whereas there be now in England certain hungry 
and ravenous people that importuned the King for relief, 
having no rents or, revenues in the land and yet living at 
a high rate and great charges many ways, His Majesty to 
give them content hath willed them to seek out Popish 
recusants which he might bestow upon them ; wherein they 



the Gunpowder Plot. 35 

then become diligent to inquire them out and restless 
in prosecuting them to the uttermost, and think all they 
can get too little : as it is indeed too little to satisfy 
their needs ; which was a thing foreseen and foretold by 
some who yet are no prophets nor sons of prophets, but 
Protestants of the wiser sort, who, as it is said, when it 
was consulted of amongst all the Peers of the realm, 
before the King's coming, concerning his admission to 
the crown, some amongst them alleged that it might 
well be feared that the lean and hungry oxen which 
Pharao saw in his dream would devour all the fat and 
goodly oxen which their English fertile ground had fed 
so well before, and that these ravenous beasts would eat 
them up and yet seem to be nothing satisfied. Thus they. 
And truly the meaner sort of these to whom 
Catholics were thus given, were not satisfied with the 
Catholics they could find out, but they also procured 
divers to be presented and indicted for recusants who 
were but well-wishers unto Catholics and went to church 
themselves ; and yet some of them could not be delivered 
except they would publicly abjure their faith at the 
Assizes and Sessions, whereof sundry rueful examples 
might be given. In all which, the case seemeth to divers 
both grievous and odious, that true and freeborn subjects 
of good quality should be given as it were in prey to 
others. And for that the sequel of this matter apper- 
tained to many, the exasperation also rising thereof must 
needs be very general. 

Th %11earcheT er Now if we should stand upon the particular 
enumeration of the calamities which fall upon Catholics by 
private persons, and especially Puritans put in authority 
over them, the many insolences and molestations which 
are offered in the searches which are used in most odious 
manner, and so have been ever since this first Parliament, 
it would much afflict the hearts of the pious readers. And 
it is to be thought that many particulars thereof are not 



36 A Narrative of 

known to His Majesty, though all exercised and executed 
in his name and under his authority. What a thing is it 
for a Catholic gentleman to have his house suddenly beset 
on all sides with a number of men in arms both horse and 
foot, and not only his house and gardens and such inclosed 
places all beset, but all highways laid for some miles near 
unto him, that none shall pass but they shall be examined! 
Then are these searchers ofttimes so rude and barbarous 
that, if the doors be not opened in the instant when they 
would enter, they break open the doors with all violence, as 
if they were to sack a town of enemies won by the sword, 
which is a strange proceeding, and proper only to our 
persecuted state at this time, for it is not used elsewhere, 
but with us so common that no man can have assurance of 
one hour's quiet or safety within the walls of his own 
habitation, which yet in just and peaceable common- 
wealths should be his fortress and castle. Whereupon it 
seemed so strange to the Scottish gentlemen that came 
into England with His Majesty, that divers of them said — 
" If we in Scotland should be thus used, or that any should 
enter our house by force and against our will, we should 
presently have killed them." If they said this for this 
forcible entry only, what may be said for their manner of 
proceeding being entered ? Which I will therefore set down 
more in particular, that by this the reader may judge of 
our usage in other things. 

The searchers being thus entered, it hath been usual 
with pursuivants to run up the stairs and into the chambers 
with their drawn swords, enough to drive the weaker sort of 
women and children out of their wits. Then they begin to 
break of! locks and open all the doors of the house 
presently, that they may at one time search in many 
places. Then if they find no Priest nor suspected persons 
for Priests in any of the chambers or closets, they go 
presently to search for secret places, and this they do 
most cunningly and strictly, sounding the floois and walls 



the Gunpowder Plot. 37 

to see if they can find any hollow places. They do also 
measure the walls of the house and go round about the 
house on the outside to see if one part do answer to 
another, in hope to find some void part left hollow, 
wherein a man may be hid. Sometimes, if the walls be 
not made of stone, but of wainscot or other weak matter, 
they will thrust through it with their swords in many 
places, hoping that in some place or other they may light 
upon a Priest, and this they do also in the roof of the 
house, upon suspicion there may be some conveyance, 
though they cannot find the entry into it, as, indeed, the 
doors of the secret places are commonly made with such 
art as it is hard to find them or espy them, otherwise it 
were not possible to keep Priests so long as some Catholics 
do and have done. But the searchers, if they find any 
likely cause of suspicion, not contented with that dange- 
rous manner of trial with their swords (in which cases 
some Priests have escaped very hardly of being wounded 
or slain), they then break down the walls wholly and 
enter themselves to search with candles and torches in all 
such dark places and in housetops, where sometimes 
nothing but mice or birds have come of many years. 
This we hope will be a means to prevent the diligent 
search of God's judgments wherein he saith — " Scrutabor 

Sophon. 1. Jerusalem in lucernis." 1 But if this be permitted 
by God's judgment to be done to His servants in this life, 
what shall be done to the doers of this in the next ? " Si 

Luc. 23. in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid net?" 2 
" Incipit judicium (saith St. Peter) a domo Dei. Si autem 
primum a nobis, quis finis eorum qui non credunt Evan- 

1 Pet. 4 . gelio ? " 3 But to return unto our narration. 

1 "I will search Jerusalem with lamps" (Soph. i. 12). 

2 " For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in 
the dry?" (St. Luke xxiii. 31). 

3 " For the time is that judgment should begin at the house of God. And 
if first at us, what shall be the end of them that believe not the Gospel of 
God?" (1 St. Peter iv. 17). ' 



38 A Narrative of 

When the searchers find not any Priest for all this 
cruel diligence they have used, they will not yet give 
over, but supposing there is or may be some so secretly 
hidden that yet he is there for all that they have 
done, then they appoint a watch about the house and 
every part thereof of fifty or sixty men, and sometimes 
more, and these with guns and bills, &c. ; and this 
they keep for many days together (intending to starve 
him out), sometimes for six, yea, ten and twelve days 
continuance. Sometimes, also, they place watchmen in 
the chambers of the house within, both to keep that no 
Catholic shall stir to relieve the Priest (though commonly 
they make them sure for that by locking them up all in 
one part of the house together, which they mean least to 
search as being least suspected) ; and besides that they 
may hearken if any little stirring be behind a wall, yea, but 
the breathing or coughing of a Priest (which was the means 
indeed by which Fr. Cornelius before mentioned was found 
out and apprehended), to which end also they do some- 
times cunningly speak aloud, one to another, that they will 
begone away because they can find nothing, and seem to 
make a noise as though they did depart ; then will they go 
softly into the chambers a little after and seem to be of the 
house, and knock softly at every wall, willing the good 
man to come forth, for now the searchers are gone, thanks 
be to God. This subtlety is usual to these men — " Sed 
deficient scrutantes scrutinio et exaltabitur Dominus et 
Ps. 6 3 . sagittae parvulorum sicut plagae eorum.' 1 And 
truly sometimes the protection of God is wonderful in 
these cases, that men do escape their hands, when by 
human means one would think it were wholly impossible > 
of which I have known many examples. 

But the searchers, in the meantime, when they can 

1 " They have searched after iniquities : they have failed in their search 
. . . and God shall be exalted : the arrows of children are their wounds " 
(Psalm lxiii. 7, 8). 



the Gttnpowder Plot. 39 

find no Priest, whom they chiefly desire to take in any 
man's house, because then his lands and goods and life also 
are all forfeited : — but if that will not be, then they rifle 
every little corner for church stuff, for copes and vestments, 
chalices, pixes, and such. For these they break open chests 
and trunks ; then to cabinets and little boxes for letters, 
hoping to find some spiritual advice in them (though not 
to follow it, God knows), but thereby to infer that they 
are Priests' letters with whom they have acquaintance ; or 
if they find any Agnus Deis, or beads or medals that they 
can prove are hallowed, then also all the lands and goods 
of the parties are seized and themselves condemned to 
perpetual prison, which was the case of Mr. Tregian, a 
worthy gentleman of great estate. Many examples of all 
these particulars might be alleged, but it were too long for 
the reader, and not safe for the parties of whom the stories 
must be told, especially if they be truly set down in such 
barbarous manner as they were performed, which is 
sometimes so uncivil that they will search the very beds 
where man and wife do lie at their first breaking into the 
house, when they come in the night, as in London, it 
is most commonly, yea, sometimes into the beds where 
women lie in childbed. Yea, they will not spare grave 
ancient matrons and women of great place. One ancient 
The Lady Nevd. lady, lying in Holborn, in London, was 
in this sort so rudely handled by them that she fell sick 
upon it and lived not long after — a grave lady, and a 
woman of great virtue. 

Briefly, their insolences are so many and so outrageous, 
and thereby the miseries and afflictions of Catholics were 
so much increased and multiplied, that it seemed to many 
very intolerable to be long endured. The only hope might 
be that which at those times Priests did labour to persuade, 
and divers of the graver Catholics were yet content to 
believe, might be possible (as in darkness, the least 
glimpse of light, though but far off, doth bring some 



40 A Narrative of 

comfort, in hope it may come nearer), and that was the 
memory of His Majesty's faithful promises, which, being 
given on the word of a Prince, they thought could not be 
violated, unless they should hear himself to speak the 
contrary. This only hope did yet live in some, though 
many apparent proofs to the contrary did continually 
weaken it. But this little spark of light also was soon 
after clean put out, no doubt by the industry and 
malicitious procurement of the Puritans, whose custom 
it is to incense the King against Catholics by some false 
information, and thereby to draw from His Majesty 
certain bitter speeches and invectives against Catholics, 
which then themselves are forward to publish, thereby to 
put Catholics the more in despair, and by despair into some 
cause giving of further afflictions, like him that will beat a 
child to make him cry, and then beat him because he crieth. 
But first, that which did seem to extinguish wholly all 
hopes of help from His Majesty was, that whereas, in the 
beginning of the year 1605, it pleased him to call a 
conference between the Protestant Bishops and the chief 
of the Puritan side, in which conference or disputation the 
King, as head of the Church of England in ecclesiastical 
matters (which the Puritans acknowledge not), sat as chief 
moderator or judge in all things — though I say it was his 
pleasure to give unto the Puritans a day of hearing, yea, 
three days together full audience of all that they could say 
or allege for themselves and for their novelties and newly 
coined heretical inventions, yet would he not once admit 
the Catholics to be heard or any for them, notwithstanding 
their prescription and long-continued possession in their 
religion, and that they hold no other faith than that which 
was warranted from erring by Christ Himself, received 
from the seat of the Apostle St. Peter, commended for 
universal by St. Paul, planted in our own country with 
miracles, watered with the blood of acknowledged martyrs, 
strengthened with the authority of all the ancient Doctors, 



the Gtmpowder Plot. 41 

practised and delivered unto us by known and granted 
Saints, honoured and professed by all his ancestors, 
approved, commended, and commanded by all the ancient 
Parliaments and laws of the realm ; notwithstanding all 
these and many other titles unto truth of doctrine which 
we can allege, prove, and convince to be on our side, and 
only to stand for us, yet we were put to silence, our mouth 
was shut, yea, and stopped also (at the instance of the 
Puritans), least we should be heard to cry that might not 
be suffered to speak. Which, that you may the better see 
to be most true, you shall understand that when His 
Majesty, having heard the Puritans at full, and knowing 
them to be a restless and imperious company if they 
should be approved in their opinions, and dangerous to 
his person and State (as he had often trial in Scotland) if 
they should be permitted to grow to greater strength — for 
this cause he and his Council thought it needful to define 
all matters in controversy between the Protestants and 
them wholly in every point against the Puritans, but then, 
being willing to give them satisfaction in some things, 
" Et nesciens quomodo aliter placeret eis, nisi in capitibus 
t Reg. 29. nostris," 1 he first, in the whole conference, uttered 
divers things that were very afflictive to Catholics, pro- 
ceeding from the mouth of their King, whom they had so 
much honoured and in whom they had hoped. Then, 
drawing towards the end of the said conference, he urged 
the Bishops very much to a diligent inquiry and punish- 
ment of the said Catholics (which needed not, I wis, in 
respect of their known malice and vigilancy against 
them). At which time His Majesty said he observed 
and discovered three degrees of recusant Papists, as he 
called them ; one that refused to go to the communion 
but not to the service or sermons, the other refused to go 
to communion or service but not to sermons, the third 

1 "For how can he otherwise appease his master, but with our heads?" 
(1 Kings xxix. 4). 



42 A Narrative of 

refused all three, in which distinction His Majesty did 
comprehend those also whom we count schismatics and 
well-wishers only, we esteeming, indeed, none for Catholics, 
nor admitting any unto the Sacraments of the Church, but 
those which refuse all communion with heretics in any of 
the three. 

But all these kinds His Majesty said were carefully to 
be sought out and prosecuted, &c. And when the Chan- 
cellor there present, and ready to devise new afflictions unto 
Catholics for the satisfaction of the Puritans and his credit 
with the King, proposed for a greater and sharper galling 
of them, that ordinary processes de excommunicato capiendo 
might be exercised upon them, saying that no other punish- 
ment would vex them so much ; for that by force of this 
they should be barred from making testaments; they should 
also be holden as outlaws and used accordingly ; no man 
needed to pay them any debts, nor any tenant their rents, 
unless they list ; and what injury soever they then receive, 
they can have no remedy. This huge and universal affliction 
the Chancellor had no scruple to entreat for us, and that he 
might have license to give out commandment for the same, 
and that all under officers might be punished that any 
way failed thereof. Whereunto, saith the book wherein all 
this conference is printed at large, His Majesty yielded 
and gave consent. By which one consent you may imagine 
how great a sea of molestations he did let forth upon the 
said Catholics, and no less also by his consent to the 104 
Canons at that time set down and agreed on, all which 
were devised and planted by the said Bishops to beat and 
batter the said Catholics withal. By this it is easy to 
judge what cause all Catholics had by this time of extreme 
diffidence of help from thence where it was most expected. 
And that Catholics might know the better what to trust 
unto concerning all their former hopes conceived or 
promises received, the contrary was afterwards more 
plainly made known unto them by divers persons in 



the Gunpowder Plot. 43 

authority, and that in serious and public manner, of 
which I will only allege two examples, by which you may 
guess at the rest ; both which are published in print by 
themselves in a book intituled The late Commotion in 
Herefordshire, &c., printed by J. Charlton and F. Burton. 
One is that upon the 5th of August, in the year 1605, 

D.Bancroft, the then named Bishop of London, now of 
Canterbury, preaching at Paul's Cross, did utter a certain 

plotesteSn' s protestation of His Majesty, made, as he saith, 
before God and His Angels, that he was so constant and 
firm for the maintenance of the English religion which now 
he professed, as that he would not only spend his own 
dearest blood in defence thereof together with all his king- 
doms if he had ten times so many as he hath; but moreover 
desired of God, that if He saw any of his children would be 
of other mind after him, He should take them away in his 
lifetime, that he might see them brought to their grave 
before him, to the end that their shame might be buried in 
his lifetime. 

All which words of the King's related by the Bishop, 
the author of the book doth avow were spoken by His 
Majesty principally against Papists and their hope of 
toleration or mitigation of their pressures, which he saith 
to be a vain hope, &c. The other example is the Lord 

The l. chancellor, Chancellor his speech in the Star Chamber 

his ppeech in the . . 

star chamber. some days before this, to wit, Thursday, the 
20th of June in the same year, where, speaking unto the 
Judges before they went their circuit, and to the Justices of 
Peace, gentlemen and others, that were to return into their 
countries after the Term ended and relate what they had 
heard in London, he delivered in vehement sort a large and 
sharp speech as from His Majesty's sense, words and com- 
mandment against all sorts of Catholics, but especially 
Priests, Jesuits, and recusants, and such as did acknowledge 
the authority of the Pope of Rome, ordaining and charging 
in His Majesty's name that all Judges in their circuits, all 



44 A Narrative of 

Justices of Peace in their districts, all gentlemen in their 
countries, and other people in the places where they should 
abide, should inquire after them, pursue and seek them out, 
that they might be punished, adding thereunto a certain 
new rigour of punishment not before in use, but designed 
now by His Majesty, as he said, to wit, that every Justice 
of Peace, though himself were no Papist, yet if he were 
thought to favour or tolerate Papists, or if his wife, 
children, or servants were Papists, they should lose their 
offices and be removed out of the Commission of 
Peace, as unfit members to hold that place (which could 
be for no other reason, but lest by some means or other 
some little favour might happen to some Catholic by 
their means, as a town that is very strictly besieged is 
commonly barred from all relief both by sea and land). 
Finally, he concluded with that in effect which the Bishop 
spake at Paul's Cross concerning the vain hopes of 
Catholics for any toleration or alleviation of their afflic- 
tions ; hereunto adding a speech (saith the book) of His 
Majesty's concerning the folly of Papists, how they were 
besotted, yea and more than bewitched to suppose any 
such matter of toleration, wondering whereupon they 
should build their false hopes, adding also that His 
Majesty had vowed unto his Privy Council, that if he 
did know that any of his children after him would go 
back from this, he would lay his curse upon him. So he. 

These and the like speeches do our chiefest enemies, 
the Puritans, use to draw from His Majesty, and after- 
wards cause to be divulged also to no small prejudice of 
the mutual love and goodwill, reverence, and respect, 
which ought to be between the Prince and his subjects, 
as between the father and his children : they being not 
ignorant what effect such speeches do work, and that any 
Injury is more easily borne at a Prince's hand than con- 
tumely against a multitude. 

Whereupon they have further procured that ordinarily 



the Gunpowder Plot. 45 

when His Majesty cometh to dinner or supper, some one 
shall be ready to give occasion of hard speeches against 
the Catholics ; and this is commonly the office of Mr. 
Mountague, dean of his chapel, who was in profession 
so earnest a Puritan that he would not wear the cap or 
surplice (which Protestants admit) before the King's 
coming for any persuasion ; but since, in respect of the 
deanery in that place of credit, he is content to dis- 
pense with his conscience, though his mother, the Lady 
Mountague, have given him her curse for his labour, 
and saith she will not acknowledge him for her son in 
respect of that dissimulation, as she calleth it. But 
howsoever it be, his partners, the Puritans, make evil use 
of his place, being such as may so often and so easily have 
the King's ear, whereunto he is so ready, that, besides 
other tricks, he hath this now and then, to bring some 
Catholic book in his bosom, with the leaf turned into 
some place or other where the author doth speak ' any 
thing that may offend His Majesty, as, namely, of the 
Bishop of Rome, especially when it toucheth his spiritual 
authority over Princes; which His Majesty reading or 
hearing read, and growing thereby into heat of disputa- 
tion, refutation, or reprehension, uttereth oftentimes words 
which these men and their adherents do no less odiously 
urge and divulge afterward, than craftily and maliciously 
they procured before. As for example, that His Majesty 
doth hold all Catholics that esteem of the Pope's authority 
for traitors, and especially recusants that will not in respect 
of their religion communicate with Protestants in their 
service and sacraments, and finally that none can hold 
all points of Catholic religion and be a true subject ; with 
divers other such speeches which gall and grieve the 
hearts of Catholics above measure, all which are after- 
ward avouched by the standers-by in His Majesty's name, 
by citing his authority for it. Whereof we could allege 
too many examples, which we pretermit, for that it is 



46 A Narrative of 

likely that His Majesty had not so grievous meaning 
therein against his Catholic subjects, as the words do 
sound or as by such seditious people is wont to be inferred 
or urged, the sooner to put men into despair. 

And yet we must confess that one circumstance hath 
greatly increased the fear of all Catholics touching His 
Majesty's meaning in this most deeply touching point, 
S ^fhTr 5 i C ptt' o rCons hief ' which is, that his Attorney-General 
(a man not lightly esteemed in his profession of the 
common laws of our country) having made a book 
whereby he would fain prove Catholic recusants to be 
traitors, wresting and enforcing the common laws of the 
realm to that same purpose ; and presenting the said 
book unto the King, it was not only gratefully received by 
His Majesty, but highly commended also, and the doctrine 
allowed, so far forth that the King affirmed the same by 
oath and said, " By my sail, I do hold them all for 
traitors indeed, and it is here very sufficiently and truly 
proved." And this was spoken publicly at His Majesty's 
table, divers noblemen standing by, and some that were 
not ill-affected to Catholics and knew their minds and 
deserts unto His Majesty to be much contrary to this 
construction. 

This therefore being known to Catholics, it is easy 
to be seen how first their hopes were turned into fears 
and then their fears into full knowledge that all the 
contrary to that they hoped was intended and prepared 
for them. It being well known that this book was made 
by the Attorney according to the direction of the 
Council, to prepare the mind of His Majesty and the 
other Peers of the realm against the ensuing Parliament 
then to make laws against Catholics of such nature and 
force as are fit and usual to be made against traitors ; and 
therefore cunningly they caused it first to be delivered to 
His Majesty in public place, presuming that when the 
King had approved the book, and showed himself of the 



the Gunpowder Plot. 47 

same opinion, no subject durst seem to think the contrary, 
and therefore that none would be slack in giving assent 
to any laws intended, how cruel soever. And this is 
thought to have been a great cause of hastening the 
impatience and temerity of those gentlemen who (as we 
find now by their examinations) about these times con- 
spired to work their designment against the Parliament, 
as thinking by like, that sith they were condemned for 
traitors and to be used for such at the Parliament, they 
had no way to defend their life but by seeking to hinder 
the Parliament, and that also, by so doing, they should 
be no more esteemed traitors than they were already, 
nor their brethren neither, being all esteemed and con- 
demned beforehand for such. So that if they failed of 
their purpose, they should not increase any evils to 
themselves or others ; and if their desires took effect, then 
they should free both (which otherwise they thought 
impossible), besides the delivery of infinite souls from 
schism and heresy, from sin and damnation, which they 
all protested at their death was their principal intention. 

But howsoever their intention was for the cause of 
their enterprise (which I leave to the judgment of God), 
sure we are the thing intended was most unfit, and a 
thing that I suppose hath brought more grief to the hearts 
of Catholics generally in England than ever anything did 
in all this time of their sufferings. But by this we may 
see how rash and temerarious attempts extremity doth 
sometimes suggest, and that the counsel was wise which 
2 Re g . 2. Abner gave to Joab, when he did prosecute his 
victory with too great violence. " An ignoras," saith he, 
"quod periculosa sit desperatio P" 1 As if he should say, 
Art thou so skilful a captain and art ignorant that despair 
doth often drive those that fly to turn head again with 
new and redoubled forces ? especially when the despair 

1 " Knowest thcu not that it is dangerous to drive people to despair?" 
(2 Kings ii. 28), 



48 A Narrative of 

of escaping by flight is so great that they see rather 
increase of hope than of danger by fighting, which hope 
of theirs men will then seek to strengthen with their 
uttermost forces ; whereof the event is often such as it 
turns the danger on the contrary side, of which kind 
many examples are daily seen. And that not only in 
men, that by natural reason are led to choose the less 
danger, but in the poorest and most fearful creatures also 
that be, which of their own natures are so timorous that 
they fly at the very sight of man, as we see in many silly 
beasts both in house and fields ; yet when they are so 
pursued and pressed, as they are put in desperation of 
their life, they turn again and leap in a man's face itself. 
So that this course of giving too much cause of despair 
is holden dangerous by all wise men, and as such is' 
carefully foreseen and prevented in most commonwealths. 
But our rulers had been so long acquainted with our 
patience, and made trial thereof by so many and so 
urging cruelties, that they thought themselves sure the 
Catholics would never attempt anything in their own 
defence that might offend the State, howsoever they were 
used. And surely so it had continued still, as it hath 
long done, if this enterprise had been in their power to 
prevent. But it was carried with that secrecy and with 
such manner of proceeding as it was not possible for 
others to hinder it, nor seemed probable that any did 
intend it ; as now it will appear more plainly in the 
chapters following. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW UPON THESE AND THE LIKE MOTIVES DIVERS 
GENTLEMEN DID CONSPIRE AND CONCLUDE UPON 
SOME VIOLENT REMEDY. 

By that which hath been set down in the former chapter, 
every prudent man will easily conceive what was like to be 
the sense and feeling of all Catholics in this so great 
increase of their long-endured afflictions, in this utter 
despair of any help from His Majesty (in whose promised 
clemency all their hopes were placed), and in a certain 
expectation of other most cruel and newly -invented laws 
to be further imposed upon them at the next Parliament 
as against traitors not worthy to live in a commonwealth, 
and as such already published in books framed and printed 
by authority, and so censured and pronounced by the King 
himself. In what other state could they be but a general 
and most afflicting desolation, and as the Prophet Esay 
Esaiaei. saith, u Omne caput languidum et omne cor 
mcerens " 1 from the highest to the lowest. 

But the cogitations of men, as they were all much 
afflicted in such an inundation of evils upon them without 
hope of ease or end, so yet no doubt they were very dif- 
ferent according to the divers states of minds in plenty or 
penury of grace, and partly also according to their different 
natures and dispositions, some more able and apt than others 
to bear injuries with patience. We know right well, and all 
England will witness with us, that the greatest part by much 
did follow the example and exhortation of the Religious 
and Priests that were their guides, moving them and leading 

1 "The whole head is sick and the whole heart is sad" (Isaias i. 5). 
E 



50 A Narrative of 

them by their own practice to make their refuge unto God 
jud. i 3 . in so great extremities, " Qui nunquam deserit 
1 Cor. 10 sperantes in se;" 1 "Nee patietur nos tentari supra 
id quod possumus, sed faciet cum tentatione proventum ut 
1 Pet. 5 . possimus sustinere." 2 " Immo modicum passos ipse 
proficiet, confirmabit, solidabitque." 3 This we found to be 
believed practically by most, and followed as faithfully, 
preparing themselves by more often frequentation of the 
Sacraments, by more fervent prayer, and by perfect resig- 
nation of their will to God, against the cloud that was like 
to cover them, and the shower that might be expected 
would pour down upon them after the Parliament, unto 
which all the chief Puritans of the land were called, and 
only they or their friends selected out of every shire to 
be the framers of the laws, which thereby we might easily 
know were chiefly intended and prepared against us. But 
in so great a multitude all are not so perfect, some few 
fainted in courage, and, as St. Cyprian noteth of his times, 
did offer themselves unto the persecutors before they felt 
the chief force of the blow that was to be expected. 

Others again (as since it hath appeared) were much 
different from these, and ran headlong into a contrary 
error. For being resolved never to yield or forsake their 
faith, they had not patience and longanimity to expect 
Sap. s. the Providence of God, " qui attingit a fine usque 
ad finem fortiter et disponit omnia suaviter." 4 They 
would not endure to see their brethren so trodden upon 
by every Puritan, so made a prey to every needy follower 
of the Court or servant to a Councillor, so presented and 
pursued by every churchwarden and minister, so hauled 

1 "Who hath not forsaken them that hope in Him " (Judith xiii. 17). 

2 "Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, 
but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it" 
(1 Cor. x. 13). 

3 " Who after you have suffered a little, will Himself perfect you and 
confirm you and establish you " (1 St. Peter v. 10). 

4 " She reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly " 
(Wisd. viii. 1). 



the Gunpozvder Plot. 51 

to every sessions when the Justices list to meet, so wronged 
on every side by the process of excommunication or out- 
lawry, and forced to seek for their own by law, and then 
also to be denied law, because they were Papists ; finally 
both themselves and all others to be denounced traitors, 
and designed to the slaughter. These things they would 
not endure now to begin afresh after so long endurance, 
and therefore began amongst themselves to consult what 
remedy they might apply to all these evils (and few 
greater than these by the daily destruction of innumerable 
souls, as they alleged at their death), so that it seems they 
did not so much respect what the remedy were, or how 
it might be procured, as that it might be sure and 
speedy, to wit, to take effect before the end of the Parlia- 
ment from whence they seemed to expect their greatest 
harm. 

And this I do guess to have been the likeliest 
motive, to make that stratagem of the Parliament House 
to come into their head, unless perhaps they did think 
it was impossible for them to prevail any other way. 
Now peace being concluded by other Princes, they could 
not expect any sufficient aid from them. And they saw 
that other Princes were willing with the peace in regard 
of their own affairs (which might be cause sufficient), 
although there the peace of Catholics was not included ; yea 
presently upon the concluding of that, they saw and felt that 
the persecution began afresh and in far worse manner than 
before (as in the precedent chapters hath been related), 
yea they found that their case would not be understood in 
many Princes' Courts, but rather the Ambassadors and 
other instruments employed by their persecutors believed, 
than their case credited when it was laid down by witnesses 
of unstained integrity. And seeing for these causes no 
hope of help from others, they knew well that of them- 
selves by open rising in field they were not able to resist 
and repel the force of the whole State, both because all 



52 A Narrative of 

Catholics would not join in those courses, and because 
both Protestants and Puritans would then join together 
against them ; therefore this public course being not pro- 
bable to take effect, it is like they fell to search out what 
private way might be within their power and yet might 
be effectual. And then, as it seems by their confessions 
(made after to the Council), Mr. Catesby proposed that 
fatal and final course of overthrowing the Parliament 
House, alleging for his reason that which before I gathered 
to be his mind out of his own words : that so, said he, 
we may deliver our country from the servitude she is in, 
and at one instant deliver us from all our bonds, and 
although we can have no foreign help, yet so may we 
plant again the Catholic religion in our country. Thus 
you may see how good desires may be followed by unfit 
means, and how much a man may be deceived when he 
cloth follow but his own ways, how good or great soever 
the motives be or the wished effect of that he goeth 
about, for "non est faciendum malum ut inde eveniat 
bonum." 1 

And when one of his companions, called Mr. Winter, pro- 
posed that the matter was so great and imported so many, 
that it would be well considered of, Mr. Catesby answered, 
" The nature of the disease was such that it required 
so sharp a remedy, and that the Parliament was the place 
where all the laws had been made against Catholics, and 
therefore the fittest for the makers of those laws there 
to receive their punishment, especially there being then 
chosen all the Puritans of the realm, of purpose to make 
much more cruel laws than before ; so that at one blow 
they should cut off all the greatest enemies of God's 
Church, and the greatest persecutors both of their souls 
and bodies, which they could not do by any other possible 
means ; and not doing that, they would never prevail nor 
save the whole country from destruction of their souls, 
1 " We must not do evil that good may come." 



the Gunpowder Plot. 



;>*) 



nor their brethren and themselves from slaughter of their 
bodies." Thus he. This, therefore, seeming probable and 
pious to their deceived judgments, they fell upon that 
conclusion, that they would prepare for it as soon as they 
could, but in such secret manner that no living creature 
for no cause should understand of their designments but 
themselves that then consulted, who were but five in 
number, and they would take an oath of secrecy upon 
a Primer to that effect. Only some months after, when they 
found some more help was needful for them, they con- 
cluded that three of the five, whereof Mr. Catesby and 
another of the chiefest to be two, might impart it to some 
other chosen person to draw him into the action. So great 
care they had, that it might not be so much as suspected 
by other Catholics, and especially they meant to keep 
it from their ghostly Fathers and all kind of Religious 
men or Priests, knowing well they should never have then- 
assent to an action of that nature. And besides, for that 
they had no doubt at that time or any scruple in the 
matter for the causes before alleged, gathered out of 
Mr. Catesby his words, though afterwards when the matter 
depended much longer than they expected, upon some 
occasion or other that belike was offered, they began to 
doubt of one circumstance, and then sought resolution, 
but in such cunning and close manner, as shall afterwards 
appear in the process of the story. And thirdly, for that 
they feared their ghostly Fathers would assuredly draw 
them out of that course if they should have understanding 
of it, which to be a principal cause of their keeping the 
matter so secret from them, may appear by the speeches 
which Sir Everard Digby used afterwards at the time 
of his arraignment. 

The five that concluded first upon this preposterous 
Plot of Powder were these, Mr. Robert Catesby, Mr. 
Thomas Percy, Mr. Thomas Winter, Mr. John Wright, 
and Mr. Guy Fawks, as appeareth by the confession 



54 A Narrative of 

of the said Mr. Thomas Winter : IT x out of whose examina- 
tions with the others that were made in the time of 
their imprisonment, I must gather and set down all that 
is to be said or collected of their purposes and proceedings 
in this heady enterprise. For that as I have said, they 
kept it so wholly secret from all men, that until their 
flight and apprehension it was not known to any that 
such a matter Avas in hand, and then there could none 
have access unto them to learn the particulars. But we 
must be contented with that which some of those that 
lived to be examined, did therein deliver. Only for that 
some of their servants that were up in arms with them 
in the country did afterwards escape, somewhat might 
be learned by them of their carriage in their last extremities, 
and some such words as they then uttered, whereby their 
mind in the whole matter is something the more opened, 
and all as I have heard then I will faithfully relate. 

But first that these first conspirators may be the better 
known, together with the matter and manner of their con- 
spiracy, it shall be good to let you see in particular what 
the persons were. 

Mr. Catesby. Mr. Catesby (who as it seems by many 
circumstances was the first inventor and the chiefest 
furtherer of the Plot) was a gentleman of an ancient and 
great family in England, whose chief estate and dwelling- 
was in Warwickshire, though his ancestors had much living 
in other shires also. Some of his ancestors had borne great 
sway in England. But commonly the greatest men are not 
the best. Some others have been of great esteem for virtue, 
as namely one knight of his house (I take it some four or 
five descents ago) was commonly known and called in all 
the country, "good Sir William Catesby," of whom this 
memorable thing is recorded ; that when he had lived long 
in the fear of God and works of charity, one time as he 

1 Where this kind 'of mark % is found, my meaning is to have a new line 
begin . Orig. in marg. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 55 

was walking in the fields, his good Angel appeared and 
showed him the anatomy of a dead man and willed him 
to prepare him, for he should die by such a time. The 
good knight presently accepting of the message willingly, 
recommended himself with a fervent prayer unto our 
Blessed Lady in that place and then went home and 
settled all his business both towards God and the world, 
and died at his time appointed. This story is painted 
upon a wall in the church of Ashby, where that knight 
and other of Mr. Catesby's ancestors lie buried. Myself 
have both seen the pictures and read the prayer in that 
place. 

Mr. Catesby his estate in his father's time was great, 
above 3,000/. a year, which now were worth much more; but 
Sir William Catesby, his father, being a Catholic and often in 
prison for his faith, suffered many losses and much impaired 
his estate. This son of his when he came to the living was 
very wild, and as he kept company with the best noblemen 
of the land, so he spent much above his rate and so wasted 
also good part of his living. Some four or five years before 
Queen Elizabeth died, he was reclaimed from his wild 
courses and became a Catholic, unto which he had always 
been inclined in opinion, though not in practice. But after 
this time he left his swearing and excess of play and 
apparel and all wild company and began to use daily 
practices of religion instead of them, insomuch that his 
former companions did marvel to see him so changed ; for 
he concealed his being a Catholic a long time. After that, 
about three years before the Queen's death, when the Eari 
of Essex did intend and attempt by force to put down 
some of those that ruled the State and meant (as it is 
thought) to have brought in His Majesty that now is into 
the realm at that time, and to that end combined many 
noblemen and gentlemen together in the enterprise, then 
was Mr. Catesby a principal man in the action, having first 
received a faithful promise from the Earl of toleration 



56 A Narrative of 

at least for all Catholics : yea and to that end he procured 
some other Catholics to join also. 

In that business, though it was weakly performed by 
those that had the chief carriage, especially that Earl of 
Essex, yet did Mr. Catesby show such valour and fought so 
long and stoutly, as divers afterwards of those swordsmen 
did exceedingly esteem him and follow him in regard thereof, 
and only commended Sir Christopher Blunt and him, both 
which were often compared together, as well for their 
performance, as for the hurts they received ; though Mr. 
Catesby kept his very secret in prison, being in hope to 
escape with a ransom, as he did, paying 2,000/., but it cost 
him 3,000/. before he got out. All which I therefore relate, 
as a chief means of his getting aid and followers in the other 
enterprise following, in which although he and his complices 
did us as great a wrong as might be, and took themselves 
a most wrong course in their deceived zeal ; yet I will not 
wrong them with false reports in anything, nor wrong the 
reader so much, as not to let him plainly know what kind 
of men they were, and to that end do relate both their good 
and their evil. 

When Mr. Catesby was cured of his hurts and had 
paid his ransom and procured his liberty, he was so much 
esteemed and respected in all companies of such as are 
counted there swordsmen or men of action, that few were 
in the opinions of most men preferred before him, and 
he increased much his acquaintance and friends. Upon 
which occasion he then began to labour to win many to the 
Catholic faith, which he performed, and brought many to 
be Catholics of the better sort, and was a continual means 
of helping others to often frequentation of the Sacraments, 
to which end he kept and maintained Priests in several places. 
And for himself he duly received the Blessed Sacrament 
every Sunday and Festival-day, and grew to such a com- 
position of manners and carriage, to such a care in his 
speech (that it might never be hurtful to others, but taking 



the Gunpowder Plot. 57 

all occasions of doing good), to such a zealous course of life, 
both for the cause in general and every particular person 
whom he could help in God's service, as that he grew to 
be very much respected by most of the better and 
graver sort of Catholics, and of Priests, and Religious also, 
whom he did much satisfy in the care of his conscience ; 
so that it might plainly appear he had the fear of God 
joined with an earnest desire to serve Him. And so no 
marvel though many Priests did know him and were often 
in his company. He was moreover very wise and of great 
judgment, though his utterance not so good. Besides he was 
so liberal and apt to help all sorts, as it got him much love. 
He was of person above two yards high and, though slender, 
yet as well proportioned to his height as any man one 
should see. His age (I take it) at his death was about 
thirty-five, or thereabouts. And to do him right, if he had 
not fallen into this foul action and followed his own judg- 
ment in it (to the hurt and scandal of many), asking no 
advice but of his own reasons deceived and blinded under 
the shadow of zeal ; if, I say, it had not been for this, he 
had truly been a man worthy to be highly esteemed and 
prized in any commonwealth. 

Mr. Percy. Mr. Thomas Percy was of the name and kindred 
of one of the ancientest and greatest Earls in England, 
though I think he was not very near in blood, although 
they called him cousin. His estate was not great, depend- 
ing most upon the same Earl that now is of the house 
of Percies, under whom he had the keeping of a castle 
and the receiving of his rents, with the overlooking and 
command of his tenants in those parts. For the most part 
of his youth he had been very wild more than ordinary, 
and much given to fighting, so much that it was noted in 
him and in Mr. John Wright (whose sister he afterwards 
married) that if they had heard of any man in the country 
to be esteemed more valiant and resolute than others, 
one or the other of them would surely have picked some 



58 A Narrative of 

quarrel against him and fought with him to have made 
trial of his valour. This Mr. Percy was for most of his time 
affected to Catholics and a friend unto them, and did 
labour and was the means to get some out of prison ; 
but himself far from professing the same, or following 
their counsel or example, until within five or six years 
before his death, and I think about the time of my Lord 
of Essex his enterprise he became Catholic ; for he was also 
one in the action and a very forward man, hoping that 
some ease at least would have come to Catholics by the 
means. After that he was much more reclaimed, and 
grew in time, by keeping Catholics' company, and often 
frequentation of the Sacraments, to leave all his old 
customs, and to live a very staid and sober life, and for 
a year or two before his death kept a Priest continually 
in the country to do good unto his family and neigh- 
bours, though himself came thither but at times, living 
for the most part in London, where he was made one of 
the Gentlemen Pensioners in Ordinary, and so continued 
till his death. He had a great wit and a very good 
delivery of his mind, and so was able to speak as well as 
most in the things wherein he had experience. He was 
tall, and of a very comely face and fashion ; of age near 
fifty, as I take it, for his head and beard was much changed 
white. 

Mr. Thomas winter. Mr. Thomas Winter was a younger brother 
of the house of Huddington, in the county of Worcester, 
whose eldest brother and another younger than himself were 
also brought after into the action by his means. This 
gentleman had spent his youth well as it seemed by the 
parts he had, for he was a reasonable good scholar, and 
able to talk in many matters of learning, but especially in 
philosophy or histories very well and judicially. He could 
speak both Latin, Italian, Spanish, and French. He had 
been a soldier both in Flanders, France, and, I think, 
against the Turk, and could discourse exceeding well of 



tJw Gtmpowder Plot. 59 

those matters. And was of such a wit, and so fine carriage, 
that he was of so pleasing conversation, desired much 
of the better sort, but an inseparable friend to Mr. Robert 
Catesby. He was of mean stature, but strong and comely 
and very valiant, about thirty-three years old or somewhat 
more. His means were not great, but he lived in good 
sort, and with the best. He was very devout and zealous 
in his faith, and careful to come often to the Sacraments, 
and of very grave and discreet carriage, offensive to no 
man, and fit for any employment. I wish therefore he had 
been employed in some better business. 

Mr, John Wright. Mr. John Wright was a gentleman of York- 
shire, not born to any great fortune, but lived always in place 
and company of the better sort. In his youth and for the 
most of his time very wild and disposed to fighting and trial 
of his manhood, as I touched before. He became Catholic 
about the time of my Lord of Essex his attempt, in which 
he was ; and after that time kept much with Mr. Catesby 
and some other gentlemen of his friends and acquaintance. 
He grew to be staid and of good sober carriage after he 
was Catholic, and kept house in Lincolnshire, where he 
had Priests come often, both for his spiritual comfort and 
their own in corporal helps. He was about forty years old, 
a strong and a stout man, and of a very good wit, though 
slow of speech ; much loved by Mr. Catesby for his valour 
and secrecy in carriage of any business, which, I suppose, 
was the cause why he was one of the first acquainted with 
this unfortunate enterprise. 

Mr. Guido Faikes. Mr. Guido Faulks spent most of his time 
in the wars of Flanders, which is the cause that he was less 
known here in England, but those that have known him do 
affirm that as he did bear office in the camp under the 
English coronell on the Catholic side, so he was a man every 
way deserving it whilst he stayed there, both for devotion 
more than is ordinarily found in soldiers, and especially for 
his skill in martial affairs and great valour, for which he 



60 A Narrative of the Gunpoivder Plot, 

was there much esteemed. And that was the cause, as it 
may be thought, why Mr. Catesby and the rest of the 
conspirators cast their eyes upon him before others, when 
they desired one out of Flanders to be their assistant. 

But would to God these gentlemen had used their talents 
better and employed them to the service of God and their 
country, for which they were given, and not to the offence 
of the one and destruction of the other, as we find now 
to our great increase of grief amidst the rest of our many 
calamities and heavy burthen of persecution, of which 
the memory of this matter is not the least. Undoubtedly 
they were men of able parts to perform much in God's 
service, and so it is like they would have continued as 
they had begun if they would have feared sufficiently their 
own fancies, and followed the grave example and advice 
of those from whom they sought for help in all other 
matters that concerned their soul. And yet at length they 
began to doubt in some points of this also, as shall appear 
in the chapter following. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOW AFTER THEY HAD BEGUN THEIR ENTERPRISE, THEY 
FELL INTO SOME SCRUPLE, AND WENT ABOUT TO 
SATISFY THEIR CONSCIENCE BY ASKING QUESTIONS 
AFAR OFF, OF LEARNED MEN, WITHOUT OPENING 
THE CASE. 

It appeareth by the confession which Mr. Thomas Winter 
made unto the Lords of the Council, being published in 
print by order from the said Council, that these gentlemen 
having concluded upon this course of violent remedy 
(because they resolved to undertake it as their last refuge 
and remedy of all the evils they sought to prevent), Mr. 
Catesby, who first proposed this fatal blow to be given 
to the Parliament House, did also first propose unto them 
the last trial which he thought likely to prevail for redress 
of those evils by quiet means ; and to use his own words, 
there related by Mr. Winter, " First (said he to Mr. 
Thomas Winter) because we will leave no peaceable and 
quiet way untried, you shall go over and inform the Con- 
stable (who was then upon his coming in) of the state 
of the Catholics here in England, entreating him to solicit 
His Majesty at his coming hither, that the Penal Laws 
may be recalled, and we admitted into the rank of his 
other subjects." Mr. Winter went over and delivered his 
message unto the Constable as in the name of all the 
Catholics of England, whose answer was, that he had 
strict command from His Majesty of Spain to do all good 
offices for the Catholics ; and for his own part, he thought 
himself bound in conscience so to do, and that no good 
occasion should be omitted. Thus much the Constable 
promised at that time, and no doubt 'performed it both 
wisely and charitably in what he could. But it is an 



62 A Narrative of 

easy matter to satisfy with hopes of future favours, when 
he that receives the promises shall not be present to see 
the performance. 

So soon as the peace was concluded, and the Con- 
stable [of Spain] departed, the stream of persecution began 
to run more violently than before. Searches were more 
frequent, the seizure of goods more ordinary and violent, 
the payment of 20/. a month with the arrearages also 
were enacted, and (which terrified most) the Puritans, 
who were the chief men selected and summoned for the 
Parliament, were so full of their designments against 
Catholics, that they could not choose but [cast out great: 
threats] 1 against them in every place where they came; 
some affirming they would now set up their rest and 
have their will of Catholics ; some that they would leave 
no Catholics in England after a while ; others that they 
hoped to see them all hanged ere it were long. Yea, I know 
a town myself whither some Puritans came to seize some 
goods of Catholics long before the Parliament, where the 
party whose goods were taken, complaining of the rigour in 
the manner of proceeding, the officers answered, "They 
hoped to see all the Catholics' throats cut shortly, there- 
fore this was nothing." Things therefore standing in these 
terms with Catholics, these gentlemen resolved to expect no 
further trials, but, as I said, concluded upon their intended 
stratagem, bound each other by oath to the highest degree 
of secrecy, and so it seems they went about their business, 
never fearing any fault in the thing itself, nor fall that 
might come to Catholics by their error ; and thus it con- 
tinued for a good space with them. 

They hired a house by the water side (as may appear in 
Mr. Winter's confession) where they might first land their 
powder when they had bought it, and from whence they 
might easily transport it by boat also unto the place ap- 
pointed, which was a house close by the Parliament House, 

1 " Eractare verbum malum." Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 63 

hired by Mr. Thomas Percy, as a fit residence for himself 
near the Court, being Pensioner, and to wait daily in his 
quarters. And Mr. Faulks went as his man to keep the house. 
In this house, to prevent occasions of often going out, 
because they would not seem to be many in the house, they 
bought baked meats and made provision at once for a long 
time. They began to work underground at such times 
as they could least be heard, and wrought the mine until 
they came to the wall of the Parliament House, which 
finding to be hard stone, they were long about a little 
progress, and were to be more wary than before in respect 
of the noise. Whilst they were thus together, and pro- 
ceeding daily as they might, they had leisure, saith Mr. 
Winter, to fashion all their business, and to discourse of 
all things that were to be done in the matter, whereby it 
may seem their first resolution of the thing itself was 
sudden, and such as young heads and forward minds do 
often bring forth, without due consideration of circum- 
stances and likely events, which would not have been if 
they had asked counsel in the cause ; but rather, if the 
matter had been of that quality that it had been fit to 
have proceeded in it (as this was most unfit of all others), 
then would all the circumstance of importance have been 
foreseen beforehand, and all likely events forecast, and 
according to them the resolution left off or undertaken. 
But these gentlemen, as it seems then, with that leisure 
and opportunity of being so much in private together, 
began to fashion their business, after they had begun the 
enterprise. Then they began to think how they should 
get into their hands the next heir, whom they might 
set up and strengthen against the meaner sort of Puritans 
that would be left ; so that his authority being used in 
his nonage, the Catholic religion might be erected, and 
he so brought up, as that he would at his full years be 
a patron of the same. And Mr. Percy undertook that 
charge, being one that might best be seen in the Court, 



64 A Narrative of 

in regard of his place. Then they discoursed what foreign 
Princes they should acquaint with the business, in respect 
of their help after against the heretics, if they did stand 
out long. And they resolved to acquaint none ; first, 
because they could not oblige them by oath to secrecy, so 
as they might be sufficiently assured thereof, which they 
esteemed the most necessary point of all others, and the 
strength of the whole business ; secondly, for that it seemed 
they were doubtful the matter would be misliked by other 
Princes, as indeed they had cause to think it, not likely 
only, but certain ; and so no doubt they would have found 
it, if it had been imparted to any, especially if the least 
notice had come unto His Holiness, who had ever showed a 
special care of our King, and had great hope that in time 
he would do well both for himself and his country. Then 
also they began to think what Lords they should save out 
of the Parliament. And first they resolved they would save 
as many as they could. Then they descended more into 
particulars, to consider whom they might draw out of the 
danger, without danger of discovering unto them the cause 
why, or so that they might have the least suspicion of 
the matter intended. 

And here, belike, finding it would be very hard to 
save so many as they desired, and yet withal to save 
the secrecy of their enterprise (in which consisted the 
safety of themselves and of the cause), here it is very- 
likely they began to have that scruple in which after- 
wards they sought to satisfy their conscience, but not 
in right and plain matter as they should, by explaining 
the case of which they demanded, but afar off, as a 
thing by chance coming into their mind, and concerning 
rather a point of warlike affairs in general, than any- 
particular intention of theirs at that time to be put in 
practice. For whilst they were in the middle of their 
discourses (saith Mr. Winter), understanding that the Parlia- 
ment should be anew adjourned, they left off their work 



the Gunpowder Plot. 65 

for that time, and went to keep Christmas in several places, 
which was always their custom, to avoid suspicion. • Then 
the chiefest of them took the present commodity offered 
by meeting with learned Priests that holy time, and 
meant to inform themselves of such doubts as were risen 
concerning the lawfulness of the business they had in hand. 
And, having a great opinion both of the learning and virtue 
of the Fathers of the Society, Mr. Catesby desired to get, 
by cunning means, the judgment of their Superior, so as 
he should never perceive to what end the question were 
asked. Therefore coming to Father Garnett, after much 
ordinary talk, and some time passed over after his arrival, 
one time he took occasion (upon some speech proposed 
about the wars in the Low Countries or such like) to ask 
how far it might be lawful for the party that hath the 
just quarrel to proceed in sacking or destroying a town 
of the enemy's or fortress when it is holden against them 
by strong hands. The Father answered that in a just war 
it was lawful for those that had right to wage battle 
against the enemies of their commonwealth, to authorize 
their captains or soldiers, as their officers, to annoy or 
destroy any town that is unjustly holden against them, and 
that such is the common doctrine of all Divines : in respect 
that every commonwealth must by the Law of Nature be 
sufficient for itself, and therefore as well able to repel 
injuries as to provide necessaries ; and that, as a private 
person may vim vi repellere, so may the commonwealth 
do the like with so much more right as the whole is of 
more importance than a part ; which, if it were not true, 
it should follow that Nature had provided better for 
beasts than for men, furnishing them with natural weapons 
as well to offend as to defend themselves, which we see also 
they have a natural instinct to use, when the offence of 
the invader is necessary for their own defence. And there- 
fore that it is not fit to think that God, Who by natural 
reason, doth provide in a more universal and more noble 
F 



66 A Narrative of 

manner for men than by natural instinct for beasts, hath 
left any particular person, and much less a commonwealth, 
without sufficient means to defend and conserve itself; 
and therefore not without power to provide and use likely 
means to repel present injuries, and to repress known and 
hurtful enemies. And that, in all these, the head of the 
commonwealth may judge what is expedient and needful 
for the body thereof. Unto which Mr. Catesby answering 
that all this seemed to be plain in common reason, and 
the same also practised by all well-governed common- 
wealths that ever have been, were they never so pious 
or devout. But, said he, some put the greatest difficulty 
in the sackage of towns and overthrowing or drowning 
up of forts, which, in the Low Countries, and in all wars 
is endeavoured, when the fort cannot otherwise be 
surprised, and the same of great importance to be taken. 
How then those who have right to make the war may 
justify that destruction of the town or fort, wherein there 
be many innocents and young children, and some perhaps 
unchristened, which must needs perish withal ? Unto 
this the Father answered, that indeed therein was the 
greatest difficulty ; and that it was a thing could never 
be lawful in itself, to kill an innocent, for that the reason 
ceaseth in them for which the pain of death may be 
inflicted by authority, seeing the cause why a malefactor 
and enemy to the commonwealth may be put to death 
is in respect of the common good, which is to be preferred 
before his private (for otherwise, considering the thing 
only in itself, it were not lawful to put any man to death) ; 
and so because the malefactor doth in re gravi hinder 
the common good, therefore by the authority of the 
magistrate that impediment may be removed. But now, 
as for the innocent and good, their life is a help and 
furtherance to the common good, and therefore in no sort 
it can be lawful to kill or destroy an innocent. But, said 
Mr. Catesby, that is done ordinarily in the destruction 



the Gunpowder Plot. 67 

of these forts I spake of. It is true, said the Father, it 
is there permitted, because it cannot be avoided ; but 
is done as per accidens, and not as a thing intended by 
or for itself, and so it is not unlawful. As if we were shotA 
into the arm with a poisoned bullet, so that we could not 
escape with life unless we cut off our arm; thenar accidens 
we cut off our hand and fingers also which were sound, 
and yet being, at that time of danger, inseparably joined 
to the arm, lawful to be cut off, which it were not lawful 
otherwise to do without mortal sin. And such was the 
case of the town of Gabaa, and the other towns of the 
tribe of Benjamin, wherein many were destroyed that 
had not offended. With which Mr. Catesby seeming 
fully satisfied, brake presently into other talk, the Father 
at that time little imagining whereat he aimed, though 
afterwards, when the matter was known, he told some 
friends what had passed between by Mr. Catesby and 
him about this matter, and that he little suspected then 
he would so have applied the general doctrine of Divines 
to the practice of a private and so perilous a case, without 
expressing all particulars, which course may give occasion 
of great errors, as we see it did in this. 

Now Mr. Catesby having found as much as he thought 
was needful for his purpose, related the same unto the rest 
of the conspirators, and all were animated in their pro- 
ceedings without any further scruple for a long time, but 
applied all by their own divinity unto their own case, 
persuading themselves belike, that they had all the con- 
ditions of a lawful war with the Puritans and Protestant 
parties. First, a just cause, in defence of their goods, lives, 
and liberty, both of themselves and their brethren, and 
especially for the delivery and safety of so many thousand 
souls inthralled by sin and heresy ; secondly, they thought 
they found in themselves a right intention to suppress 
evil and erect and strengthen that which was good and 
needful ; thirdly, about authority to commence the same, 



68 A Narrative of 

I suppose they had most difficulty, and do not see how 
they could satisfy their own reason (much less the rules 
that are required in schools) in that behalf, seeing they 
did know so well, and had been so often told by the 
said Father Garnett and others of their spiritual guides, 
that His Holiness had given strict charge there should 
be nothing attempted against His Majesty [and the State], 
but that all Catholics should seek in patience to possess 
their souls, and thereby, and not by force, to plead for 
favour. I know not therefore from what ground they 
could imagine themselves to have authority, although in 
a far less matter. For it is not likely that they should think 
of the opinion of some that hold " quod defensio manualis 
cum sit de Jure Naturali non potest auferri per Superiorem 
vel contrarium praecipi." 1 And besides, that is to be 
understood in ipso conflictu, and not longe ante, as in this 
case of the Parliament. 

But it is an easy matter for an earnest desire to 
draw a man's opinion after it, and so their great and 
unadvised zeal to remedy the wrongs done to Catholics 
both in soul and body, might perhaps make them think 
that this opportunity of the Parliament being omitted, 
they should never again have power or opportunity to 
defend the Catholic party. And that there was not suf- 
ficient access to inform Superiors of the case of Catholics, 
neither that their extremities were believed, and that if 
they were truly known, they neither would nor could 
be tolerated when remedy might be applied, in which 
they thought themselves as it were the officers and hands 
of the commonwealth, in whose hands and power it was 
then to perform it as they thought, but would not be 
so if they should ask counsel or leave of others, because 
so great a secret could not be kept in the mouths of 
many, and those not in like manner or measure affected 

1 "That, as the right of hand to hand defence is of the Natural Law, the 
Superior cannot take it away, or enjoin the contrary." 



the Gunpowder Plot. 69 

to the business. Thus we may see how oftentimes it 
happens that a greedy affection and desire of the prey doth 
not let the bird consider or see the danger of the net which 
hangeth between the prey and it. And so as it is in too 
1 Tim. 6. earnest pursuit of riches, that " qui volunt divites 
fieri incidunt in tentationem et in laqueum diaboli," 1 
so in this case, their vehement desire of their prefixed end, 
did make them oversee a number of inconveniences and 
perils both of soul and body, that did hang upon this 
lamentable enterprise, which they did afterwards find, 
and as I hope repented : and others for their fault have 
felt more at leisure since this matter happened. 

But we that be innocent in the case, and were no ways 
accessary to the cause giving, must not repine at God's 
judgments, if He suffer us to be beaten for the error by 
others committed : Et si in vincula conjiciamur quasi 
mala operantes et ante reges et praesides ducamur quasi 
11011 existentes amici Caesaris, 2 yet we must be comforted 
in the testimony of our own conscience, that we do hate 
all treason against our Prince as much as those that punish 
us for traitors, and would no ways have joined in this if we 
had known it, but our earnest endeavours against it should 
have given sufficient testimony of a contrary mind in us, as 
may and will appear in the chapter following was done by 
Father Garnett when he began to fear they had something 
in hand, although he could never guess or suspect so 
strange a practice as they were then in plotting or rather 
in perfecting to be performed. 

"For they that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare 
of the devil" (i Tim. vi. 9). 

2 "Though we be cast into bonds as evil doers, and be brought before 
Kings and rulers as not being Caesar's friends," 



CHAPTER V. 

HOW FATHER GARNETT BEGINNING TO SUSPECT SOME- 
WHAT BY CERTAIN GENERALITIES HE UNDERSTOOD 
OF THE GENTLEMEN, WROTE DIVERS LETTERS TO' 
ROME FOR PREVENTION OF REBELLION. 

WHEN Mr. Catesby had thus satisfied his particular 
doubts out of this general doctrine, both he and his 
company went forward in their former purposes and after 
Christmas met again and began to labour afresh in the 
mine, to work through the wall of the Parliament House 
which they found to be difficult and long in doing. Where- 
upon by mutual consent they took in another assistant who 
Mr. Christopher Wright, was Mr. Christopher Wright, younger 
brother to John Wright before described in the third 
chapter, by whom also this other may be known without 
new description. For though he were not like him in 
face, as being fatter and a lighter coloured hair and taller of 
person, yet was he very like to the other in conditions and 
qualities, and both esteemed and tried to be as stout a man 
as England had and withal a zealous Catholic and trusty 
and secret in any business as could be wished : in respect 
whereof they esteemed him veiy fit to be of their company 
and so caused him to take the oath of secrecy and he 
received the Blessed Sacrament thereupon (as they had also 
done) and so admitted him. Not long after they admitted 
also another, which was Mr. Robert Winter, the eldest 
brother to Thomas Winter before spoken of. 

Mr. Robert winter. This Robert Winter was a gentleman of 
good estate in Worcestershire, about one thousand marks 
a year, and had matched with the daughter of Mr. John 
Talbot, an ancient Catholic and one of the greatest men 



A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 71 

in the whole shire for blood, for living, and for power. 
Mr. Robert Winter was also an earnest Catholic, though 
not as yet generally known to be so. He was a wise 
man and of grave and sober carriage and very stout, 
as all of that name have been esteemed. This gentle- 
man then with like ceremonies and obligation to secrecy 
was joined to their number and made them up seven ; 
who all laboured hard in the mine to get through the 
foundation of the house, which was a hard stone wall 
of three yards thick. And so they continued working 
until near Easter, at which time finding that a cellar under 
the side of their house (which was until that time in the 
possession of others) was then to be let for rent, Mr. Percy 
presently took the same, as if it were to lay in fuel for his 
house and they found it so commodious for their purpose, 
that they left off their other laborious work in the mine ; 
and in the cellar placed all their powder and covered the 
same with billets, in such sort as it could not be suspected : 
intending to store it better with powder and other neces- 
saries nearer to the time of the Parliament which then 
was adjourned. 

In the meantime Father Garnett understanding by- 
some friends that Mr. Catesby was much missing from 
the places where he was wont continually to resort for 
spiritual helps ; and hearing also, that he and other 
gentlemen of his forward humour did keep much together 
and had many secret meetings, he began to suspect 
they had something in hand that might tend to some 
commotion and that they did labour to get adherents 
for some attempt to be performed in forcible manner. 
Whereupon he wrote presently to his Superiors at Rome, 
that by their means there might be procured from His 
Holiness a prohibition to be sent unto Catholics from 
attempting anything by way of force, and of this kind he 
wrote divers letters which myself have seen since that time. 
And having had good commodity to see the copies of them 



72 A Narrative of 

lately in a place where they are safely kept, I will set down 
his own words written in several letters, that the reader 
may see his wise and quiet proceeding and the mild spirit 
of the man, much different from the calumnious reports his 
enemies have given of him concerning this action and 
directly contrary to the turbulent spirit of those that have 
been professed teachers of heresy both in those and other 
countries. 

And first he wrote one letter to his Superiors in the year 
1604, dated on the 29 of August, whilst the peace was yet 
in treaty and some hope yet living in Catholics that their 
peace would also be included, in which he hath these words 
(showing how difficult a matter it was for Catholics to be 
heard in their own cause even by some of those that were 
to plead for them). " Some," saith he, "are so jealous of their 
peace that whosoever dealt earnestly with them to further 
religion, they sticked not to say that they were seditious 
and statesmen. ' Nunquid pax est perniciosa religion! ? ' l 
said one of them. But no wise men misliked the peace and 
we hope for good of religion, which Catholics do patiently 
expect." These are his words : and truly if all that had to 
do in the matter had dealt as effectually for us in that kind 
as the Constable did in the small time of his stay there, 
perhaps things might have gone better with us than they 
did ; but as he received promises which were not performed 
after his departure ; so others were with like policy made 
believe that things did not go so hard with us as indeed 
we felt them : although it be true that the hardest of all 
began after the peace was fully concluded. In the same 
letter of Father Garnett's one may see also what difficulty 
he had on the other side with some Catholics to keep them 
quiet if some mitigation should not be obtained for them 
after so long expectance, wherein he meant belike Mr. 
Catesby and some such whom he most feared, about which 
he wrote these words following in cypher : " If the affair of 
1 " Can peace be hurtful to religion?" 



the Gtmpozvder Plot. 73 

toleration go not well, Catholics will no more be quiet. 
What shall we do ? Jesuits cannot hinder it. Let Pope 
forbid all Catholics to stir." These are his words, which 
sufficiently declare both his desires and endeavours to 
further peace and to hinder the contrary. 

About a month after he wrote another letter in answer 
of one he had received from his Superiors not long before 
(as I perceive by the party that hath the keeping of these 
letters), wherein they did require to be informed whether 
himself or any of the Society in England were against the 
peace, or did favour or further unquiet proceedings in any 
respect ; for that such an information had been sent to Padua 
out of England, but not known by whom, unto which he 
answered as followeth : " That which was written to Padua, 
that the King is much moved against Catholics through the 
fervour of some Jesuits, is known to be false here by all, 
as well enemies as friends. For they were the setters on 
of the suit for peace, and the Agent always used their 
counsel, and without their credit and friends he had never 
gone so forward. Besides, an Earl of great account com- 
mended publicly the Jesuits in the Parliament House, as 
persons wise, learned, and of sincere conscience, and great 
setters forwards of peace. In Watson's business it is well 
known how many had been entangled, and what danger 
would have followed if they had not hindered. For 
although they cannot hinder what every tumultuous head 
intendeth, yet can they carry with them to peaceable 
courses the best and most Catholics. Finally, our enemies 
see our courses and stick not to say that we flatter the 
Council, whose good opinion we have gotten. Thus 
humbly saluting yourself and all our friends, I cease this 
21 of September." Thus the good Father, in whose 
words we may see how, with truth and sincere dealing, 
he was able, and had need to defend himself and his 
Company from virulent surmises and false informations 
on both sides ; some informing they did bend to the one 



74 A Narrative of 

extremity, and some thinking they did lean unto the other ; 
but virtue is in the mean, in which path both he and 
his did walk. 

And as for that matter of Watson's, thus much I 
can say upon my knowledge, that when the Plot was 
revealed unto Father Gerard to have his counsel and 
furtherance therein, he first refused absolutely to meddle 
in the matter, and wished the other party to desist himself 
•and to dissuade others from it, as a thing absolutely unlaw- 
ful and many ways hurtful. Then presently, for better 
prevention thereof, he sent to London of purpose, both 
to inform his own Superior, Father Garnett, and the Arch- 
priest, Mr. Blackwell, wishing they would presently forbid 
all their acquaintance from entering into the cause, and 
to stay it what they could ; by which course he thought 
he had done sufficient to hinder the proceeding of the 
matter, not knowing then that any others were interested 
therein but those few Catholics from whom and of whom 
he had heard it. But afterwards, understanding again 
that the intention did go on, and that they were to be 
at London at Midsummer to effect their intent (which 
was to apprehend the King's person as he should be 
hunting in a park) ; and seeing that Midsummer was then 
at hand, and the time so short, that he feared much no 
warning to the parties themselves would be sufficient to 
stay them, he then, to be more sure of the safety of His 
Majesty's person, made known the whole intention unto 
one of His Majesty's servants, a Scottish gentleman and 
a Catholic, and as such well known unto His Majesty, 
who presently made haste unto the Court to open the 
matter unto the King himself; but found it was known 
the day before he came, and so spake nothing of it, being 
not then needful, nor he willing without cause to be 
acknowen of his acquaintance with Father Gerard : for which 
cause also I do here suppress his name ; but if occasion 
were, I doubt not but he would be willing to bear witness 



the Gunpowder Plot. 75 

with what care and fidelity the said Father Gerard did 
seek to prevent the danger to His Majesty. All which 
having heard from Father Gerard himself upon his pro- 
testation to be true in every point as I have here related, 
I do the rather set it down, because he was one of 
the three afterwards most wrongfully accused of this other 
much greater and more pernicious conspiracy, whereof he 
had not so much as the least knowledge, as will afterwards 
more plainly appear. 

But to return to the letters of Father Garnett. When 
once he began to suspect that the gentlemen aforesaid 
had something in their heads, and perceived by divers 
words and signs, that they were the more strange with 
the Society ; and as it were offended that the Society were 
still so earnest to persuade all men to expect the Pro- 
vidence of God, and the help that might be procured by 
the mediation of other Princes, wherein also they assured 
all Catholics that His Holiness would effectually procure 
them to do their best. These gentlemen were impatient 
to hear of any longer stay upon unlikely hopes, and therein 
esteemed the Society hinderers of their good, as may- 
appear by a letter of Father Garnett, written in the 8 of 
May, 1605, wherein he hath these words set down all in 
cypher : "All are desperate, divers Catholics are offended 
with Jesuits ; they say that Jesuits do impugn and hinder 
all forcible enterprises. I dare not inform myself of their 
affairs, because of the prohibition of Father General for 
meddling in such affairs." Then out of cypher followeth : 
" And so I cannot give you exact account ; this I know 
by mere chance." Thus much Father Garnett, whereby 
may appear both what commandment he had received 
from his Superiors and how carefully he performed it, even 
to the offence of these forward-minded Catholics, who were 
then well forward in their cruel enterprise. For this was 
after they had left the mine, and hired the cellar, as I 
said in the last chapter, as more commodious for their 



76 A Narrative of 

purpose. But of all that Father Garnett had not then 
the least imagination, only so much as he gathered by 
generalities, he informed his Superiors that they might 
hinder. Whereupon, having soon after received answer 
of these from Father Persons, with strict charge in the 
name of His Holiness, with Father General's letters also 
to the same effect, that he and his should continue, by 
all means possible, to hinder any insurrection or undutiful 
proceedings against His Majesty or the State. Unto 
those letters Father Garnett made this answer following, 
dated the 24 of July, the same year 1605. 

" Magnifice Domine, 

Accepimus Dominationis vestrae litteras, quas, ea qua 
par est reverentia erga suam Sanctitatem et vestram Pater- 
nitatem amplectimur. Et quidem pro mea parte quater 
hactenus tumultum impedivi. Nee dubium est quin publicos 
omnes armorum apparatus prohibere possimus; cum certum 
sit multos Catholicos absque nostro consensu nihil ejusmodi 
(nisi urgente necessitate) attentare velle. Duo tamen sunt 
quae nos valde solicitos tenent. Primum ne alii fortassis 
in una aliqua Provincia ad arma convolent, unde alios 
ipsa necessitas ad similia studia compellat. Sunt enim 
non pauci qui nuda. suae Sanctitatis jussione cohiberi non 
possunt. Ausi sunt enim, vivo Papa Clemente, interrogare, 
num posset Papa illos prohibere, quominus vitam suam 
defendant ? Dicunt insuper, suorum secretorum Presby- 
terum nullum fore conscium, nominatim vero de nobis 
conqueruntur etiam amici nonnulli nos illorum molitioni- 
bus obicem ponere. Atque ut hos aliquo modo leniremus 
et saltern tempus lucraremur, ut dilatione aliqua adhiberi 
possint congrua remedia, hortati sumus ut communi con- 
silio aliquem ad Sanctissimum mitterent, quod factum est, 
eumque ad Illustrissimum Nuncium in Flandriam direxi, 
ut ab ipso suae Sanctitati commendetur ; scriptis etiam 
litteris, quibus eorum sententiam exposui, et rationes pro 



t/ie Gunpowder Plot. 77 

utraque parte. Hae litterae fuse scriptse ac plenius fuere, 
tutissime enim transferentur. Atque hsec de primo peri- 
culo. Alterum est aliquanto deterius, quia periculum est 
ne privatim aliqua proditio aut vis Regi offeratur, et hoc 
pacto omnes Catholici ad arma compellantur. Quare, 
meo quidem judicio duo necessaria sunt ; primum ut sua 
Sanctitas prsescribat quid quoquo in casu agendum sit ; 
deinde ut sub censuris omnem armor um vim Catholicis 
prohibeat, idque Brevi publice edito, cujus occasio obtendi 
potest nuper excitatus in Wallia tumultus qui demum in 
nihilum recidit. Restat ut (cum in pejus omnia quotidie 
prolabantur) oremus S. Sanctitatem his tantis periculis 
ut brevi necessarium aliquod remedium adhibeat, cujus 
sicut et Rdae. Ptis. vrae. benedictionem imploramus. 1 

Londini, 24 Julii, 1605. Magcse. Dnis. Vae. Servus 

Henricus G." 

1 ' ' We have received your letters and accept them with all the reverence due 
to His Holiness and your Paternity. For my part four times up to the present 
T have hindered disturbances. Nor is there any doubt that we can prevent all 
public taking up of arms, as it is certain that many Catholics would never 
attempt anything of this sort without our consent, except under the pressure of 
a great necessity. But two things make us very anxious. The first is lest 
some in some one province should fly to arms, and that then very necessity 
should compel others to like courses. For there are not a few who will not be 
kept back by a mere prohibition of His Holiness. There were some who dared 
to ask, when Pope Clement was alive, whether the Pope could prohibit then- 
defending their lives. They further say that no Priest shall know their secrets ; 
and of us by name even some friends complain that we put an obstacle in the 
way of their plans. Now to soften these in some way, and at least to gain 
time, that by delay some fitting remedy may be applied, we have advised them 
that by common consent they should send some one to the Holy Father, which 
the}' have done, and I have sent him into Flanders to the Nuncio, that he may 
commend him to His Holiness, and I have sent by him letters explaining theii 
opinions and the reasons on both sides. These letters are written at some 
length, as they will be carried very safely. And this for the first danger. 
The other is somewhat worse, for the danger is lest secretly some treason or 
violence be shown to the King, and so all Catholics may be compelled to take 
arms. Wherefore, in my judgment, two things are necessary : first, that His 
Holiness should prescribe what in any case is to be done ; and then, that he 
should forbid any force of arms to the Catholics under censures, and by Brief 
publicly promulgated, an occasion for which can be taken from the disturbance 
lately raised in Wales, which has at length come to nothing. It remains that 
as all things are daily becoming worse, we should beseech His Holiness soon 
to give a necessary remedy for these great dangers, and we ask his blessing 
and that of your Paternity." 



78 A Narrative of 

By these we may see that Father Garnett having now 
great suspicion that these gentlemen had something in 
hand against the State, or perhaps perceiving by some 
general signs there was some such matter, he sought 
presently to apply the surest remedy from His Holiness. 
And true it is, as will appear after in Father Garnett's 
arraignment, that Mr. Catesby offered sometimes to tell him 
that they would not endure to be so long so much abused, 
but would take some course to right themselves, sith others 
would not respect them or could not relieve them ; unto 
which general speeches Father Garnett would give no ear, 
nor durst not enter to inquire further of the matter, in 
respect of a prohibition from his Superiors, which he touched 
in the former letters. But yet upon this general knowledge, 
you see how earnestly he wrote for an authentical instru- 
ment of prohibition from such authority as he knew they 
would not resist, although perhaps his own words, in a 
matter of so great weight, would not suffice for all, though 
for the most and best it would, as before he also touched. 

And it seemed soon after, as he thought that he had 
done some good with those gentlemen also, whom he 
feared most, or else that they had promised him to lay 
aside all thought of those matters, until they had answer 
from the gentleman whose sending, as you see, he had 
proposed to defer their hot desires until a cooling card 
might be sent from Rome, in answer of this his letter. For 
soon after, he wrote other letters of the 28 of August, 
wherein (having first declared how both his houses were 
discovered unto the Council, and he thereby utterly un- 
furnished of a safe place, and thereupon resolved to spend 
most of the summer in travel to visit a holy well of 
St. Winifred, which is a great pilgrimage in England, and 
to do what good he could at friends' houses by the way, 
both going and coming, until a fit house could be provided 
for him, wherein he might settle for the winter) ; this 
declared, he wrote as followeth : " And for anything we 



the Gunpowder Plot. 79 

can see, Catholics are quiet, and likely to continue their 
old patience, and to trust to the King or his son for to 
remedy all in time. The increase of Catholics is great, 
and I hope in this journey (which I undertake to-morrow, 
both for health and want of a house) I shall have occasion 
of much good. I leave for substitute," &c. And so he 
proceedeth to show whom he left to dispatch his London 
business in his absence. But where Father Garnett said 
in this letter that for ought he could see Catholics were 
quiet, his meaning was, no doubt, quiet from any attempts, 
as he supposed. For as for other quietness, or repose from 
persecution, you shall see what quiet there was by another 
letter of his written in October following, towards the 
end of his journey ; which, being the true relation of the 
present state of things to be seen in such a man's letter, 
I think best to set it down verbatim : " My very loving Sir, 
we are to go within few days nearer London, yet are we 
unprovided of a house, nor can find any convenient for 
any long time. But we must be fain to borrow some private 
house for a time, and live more privately until this storm 
be overblown. For most strict inquiries are practised, 
wherein if my hostess be not quite undone, she speedeth 
better than many of her neighbours. The courses taken 
are more severe than in Queen Elizabeth's time. Every six 
weeks is a several court; juries appointed to indict, present, 
find the goods of Catholics, prize them, yea in many places 
to drive away whatsoever they find " contra ordinem juris," 
and put the owners, if perhaps Protestants, to prove that 
they be theirs, and not of recusants with whom they deal. 
The Commissioners, in all countries, are the most earnest 
and base Puritans, whom otherwise the King discoun- 
tenanceth. The prisoners at Wisbich are almost famished; 
they are very close, and can have no help from abroad ; 
but the King allowing a mark a week for each one, the 
keeper maketh his gains, and giveth them meat but three 
days a week. If any recusant buy his goods again, they 



8o A Narrative of 

inquire diligently if the money be his own, otherwise they 
would have that too. In fine, if these courses hold, every 
man must be fain to redeem once in six months the very 
bed he lieth on. And hereof (that is of twice redeeming) 
besides other precedents, I find one in this lodging of 

, where now I am." (In his letter it is described, 

but here not fit to set down.) " The judges now openly 
protest that the King now will have blood, and hath taken 
blood in Yorkshire ; that the King hath hitherto stroked 
Papists, but now will strike. And this is without any least 
desert of Catholics. The execution of two in the North 
is certain, and whereas it was done upon cold blood, that 
is, with so great stay after their condemnation, it argueth 
a deliberate resolution of what we may expect. So that 
there is no hope that [Pope] Paul [V.] can do anything ; 
and whatsover men give out there, of easy proceedings 
with Catholics, is mere fabulous. And yet I am assured, 
notwithstanding, that the best sort of Catholics will bear 
all their losses with patience. But how these tyrannical 
proceedings of such base officers may drive particular men 
to desperate attempts, that I cannot answer for. The 
King's wisdom will foresee. In my journey," &c. So he 
proceedeth to relate some particular occurrents that 
happened in his journey not needful here to be set down, 
yet towards the end of the letter he setteth down this : "I 
have a letter from Field in Ireland who telleth me that 
of late there was a very severe proclamation against all 
Ecclesiastical persons, and a general command for going 
to the church, with a solemn protestation that the King 
never promised nor meant to give toleration." All these 
are Father Garnett's words truly and sincerely set down 
as they lie in his letter written by his own hand, dated 
the 4th of October, 1605, 1 which I am the more glad 

] This date is an interlineation. Father Gerard has not noticed that the 
passage " I have a letter from Field," &c., is taken from the PS. of this letter, 
and that the PS. bears date 21 Octobris. For this omission he has been 
severely blamed by Mr. Tierney. — Ed. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 81 

I lit on, because it doth agree so just with my former 
relation of the state of England touching persecution of 
Catholics before the time of this late conspiracy ; whereby 
some may see, by the plain words of so grave a witness as 
Father Garnett was, how much they are deceived, when they 
think that the persecution was caused by the conspiracy, 
and not, c contra, the conspiracy intended and attempted 
by those gentlemen out of impatience to bear so great 
abuses, and that from so base and cruel enemies as the 
Puritans are, who were everywhere made princes over 
Catholics, though otherwise not thought worthy to be 
esteemed or countenanced. 

All these, I say, be Father Garnett his letters, whereof I 
have seen the copies and have truly set down his own words 
as they are in the same (as I assure the reader upon my 
conscience), and the letters themselves, as I understand for 
certain, are as yet to be seen in Rome under his own hand, 
if occasion require. And by all these it is most apparent 
that Father Garnett was as careful as a man could be, to 
observe the strict commandment he had received both from 
His Holiness and from Father General and Father Persons 
his Superiors not to assent to any tumult, but to use all 
means he could to keep Catholics in quiet and in their 
former long combined patience, which he performed of his 
part with all sorts, and therein prevailed with the most and 
the best, as himself noteth. And how effectual his persua- 
sions were, may also appear in that, when the gentlemen 
were up in arms, no Catholic of account would come to assist 
them, no, not those that were hard by the place ; and men 
of great power, much greater than those that were risen : 
yea and some of them near of kindred, some nearly allied 
unto them ; and yet they would neither go, nor send them 
any assistance ; yea they shut their gates against them, 
when others came to demand it. Such was their resolution 
to obey the order they had received and to keep them- 
selves quiet, according to the commandment they had from 
G 



82 A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 

His Holiness, by the means of Father Garnett made known 
unto them. And whereas, Father Garnett did fear at the 
first, and afterwards find, that he could not rule some others 
so well, them he persuaded to defer at the least all such 
practices, until they had sent to know His Holiness' will : 
he, in the mean time, labouring, as you have seen, to have 
an effectual prohibition by a public instrument from the 
same authority. So that, it is most apparent, he was not 
only innocent from any furtherance or approbation of the 
treason itself; but also, an earnest hinderer of all kind 
of undutiful courses and violent attempts : and therein 
a most diligent and religious observer of his Superiors' will 
and commandment. Yet all this would not serve to work 
sufficient patience, or any longer expectance in the minds of 
these foresaid gentlemen, who, although they bare Father 
Garnett in hand that they would expect answer, this, as it 
seems, was but a show of expectance in them, and continued 
only until they saw the Parliament was almost at hand, and 
that it was too late for him to send further notice to his 
Superiors, and receive their answer. And they, in the 
mean time, proceeded, as afterwards Father Garnett also 
chanced to know, very much against his will, as will appear 
in that which followeth. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HOW IN THE MEAN SPACE, THE CONSPIRATORS PRO- 
CEEDED IN THEIR PURPOSE, AND DREW IN MORE 
COMPLICES, AND WHAT THEY WERE. 

WHILST the great persecution before recited did reign so 
much, and brought with it so many and so great afflictions 
upon all sorts of Catholics, as before you have read, and 
whilst Father Garnett did verily persuade himself that 
notwithstanding all those great difficulties, all was and 
would be borne with patience, until further order could be 
taken, and the same patient toleration publicly commanded 
which he had privately counselled ; these foresaid gentlemen 
who had commenced a course before that time which 
Father Garnett did little dream of, although they did bear 
him in hand whom they saw resolute for quiet courses, that 
they would expect until order came from authority, after 
their messenger had been heard, whom they had sent to 
explain their griefs according to his counsel, yet they, 
persuading themselves (as they afterwards affirmed to some 
that were with them, when they were in arms in the country, 
but were not taken with them) that if contrary order to 
their designments should come from higher authority (as 
they feared in likelihood it would, and therefore were loth 
to expect so long) that the same Avas only upon mistaking 
of their case or upon some hope perhaps His Holiness 
might have that things would be better with Catholics 
after a time, and that favour would be procured by fair 
means ; and this hope grounded upon promises from those 
that had deceived many with the like and never kept 
any yet that they made in that kind. They therefore, 



84 A Narrative of 

thinking themselves to have had so long trial hereof, 
would not be staid, as it seems, from their present purpose 
by future expectations, but proceeded in what way they 
had begun, and provided still more powder to such a 
quantity as made up in all thirty-six barrels, some 
bigger and some less ; all which they placed so in the 
cellar under the Parliament House, as must needs have 
overthrown the same and some other buildings also that 
had been near unto it, if it had been, set on fire as was 
intended ; especially having placed thereon many billets of 
wood to cover the same powder and some bars of iron also 
of purpose : all which being blown up with the powder, 
would have made sure to tear and rend the Parliament 
House in pieces. 

Thus having disposed all things in the cellar as they 
would have them, they absented themselves much from 
thence ; because they would give no cause of note over 
that place more than others, whereof they were ever very 
careful. And so they had good cause, being men as 
likely to be noted by the State for men of action and per- 
formance, as any in the realm ; and then, being withal 
known to be resolute Catholics, their often meetings or 
haunting much to one place, especially near the Court, 
would not have been free from suspect For the same 
cause also, during all the time they wrought in the mine or 
cellar, they would have but small company, and were but 
seven acquainted with the matter, all which I named before. 
Only one man of meaner condition they admitted there into 
the secret, to help them in making provision of their powder, 
Bates, and that was one Bates, a servant of Mr. Robert 
Catesby's, whom he had great opinion of for his long tried 
fidelity towards him, which the poor fellow continued even 
until he saw his master dead ; and then, it is like, his heart 
was dead withal, for he showed some fear after, when he 
was taken, which gave others occasion to work upon his 
weakness and to give some beginning of colour towards the 



the Gunpowder Plot. 85 

accusation of divers that were not guilty in the matter, as 
shall afterwards appear. But these foresaid gentlemen 
having left the cellar, as they desired to find it, were then 
to seek for further helps wherewith to effect their design- 
ments when that act should be performed. For then their 
purpose was (saith Mr. Winter in his printed confession) to 
seize upon the person of the young Prince, if he were not in 
the Parliament House, which they much desired. But if 
he were, then upon the young Duke Charles, who then 
should be the next heir, and him they would erect, and with 
him and by his authority, the Catholic religion. If that 
did also fail them, then had they a resolution to take the 
Lady Elizabeth, who was in the keeping of the Lord Har- 
rington in Warwickshire ; and so by one means or other, they 
would be certain to settle in the crown one of the true heirs 
unto the same. But to perform this part of their exploit 
required more hands and help than as yet they had at 
command. Wherefore they bethought themselves what help 
they might adjoin unto them in that great secret, without 
likely danger and yet with the assistance which they 
wanted, which partly required some more men of strength 
both in mind and body ; but chiefly for supply of money, 
which if they had in readiness, and that placed in those 
countries where they meant to gather to a head, and where, 
for the most part, all sorts are either Catholic or affected to 
Catholics, they thought then they could want neither men 
nor any needful provision. 

Mr. Ambrose Rookewood. To this effect they first acquainted Mr. 
Ambrose Rookewood with the business, a gentleman of good 
worth in the county of Suffolk and of a very ancient family 
and himself the heir of the eldest house. This gentleman 
was brought up in Catholic religion from his infancy and 
was ever very devout. His parents also were very virtuous 
and suffered much persecution for their Faith, both in 
payment of money and loss of their goods and many other 
molestations ; yet was their house a continual receptacle 



86 A Narrative of 

for Priests, and a place wherein many other Catholics did 
often find great spiritual comfort, the house being a very 
fair great house and his living very sufficient But that 
which moved them specially to make choice of Mr. Rooke- 
wood was, I suppose, not so much to have his help by his 
living as by his person, and some provision of horses, 
of which he had divers of the best : but for himself, he was 
known to be of great virtue and no less valour and very 
secret. He was also of very good parts otherwise as for wit 
and learning, having spent of his youth in study. He was 
at this time, as I take it, not past twenty-six or twenty- 
seven years old and had married a gentlewoman of a great 
family, a virtuous Catholic also, by whom he had divers 
young children. Yet it seemed all those did little move 
him, nor any respect to his living or fortune, though he had 
enjoyed them but a little time ; whereby I do gather, they 
made a great account of this business, in respect whereof, it 
seems, they made account of nothing. 

Mr. John Graunt. Next unto him was a Warwickshire 
gentleman, one Mr. John Grant, a man of sufficient estate 
for his own charge, and lived well in his country ; but 
of no great ability to help in the business, otherwise 
than by his acquaintance (being well beloved and allied 
in that country where they were chiefly to need help). 
But for his own person he was as fierce as a lion, of a very 
undaunted courage as could be found in a country : which 
mind of his he had often showed unto pursuivants and 
prowling companions, when they would come to his house 
to search and ransack the same, as they did to divers of 
his neighbours. But he paid them so well for their labour 
not with crowns of gold but with cracked crowns sometimes, 
and with dry blows instead of drink and other good cheer, 
that they durst not visit him any more, unless they brought 
great store of help with them. Truth is, his mettle and 
manner of proceeding was so well known unto them, that 
it kept them very much in awe and himself in much quiet 



the Gunpozvder Plot. S; 

which he did the rather use, that he might with more safety 
keep a Priest in his house, which he did with great fruit 
unto his neighbours and comfort to himself. This gentle- 
man therefore they adjoined to their company, as they had 
done Mr. Rookewood, giving to them both the oath of 
secrecy, according to their custom. 

Mr. Robert Keis. Then they called in one Mr. Robert 
Keyes, a grave and sober man, and of great wit and 
sufficiency, as I have heard divers say, that were well 
acquainted with him. His virtue and valour were the 
chiefest things wherein they could expect assistance from 
him ; for otherwise, his means were not great, but in those 
two, by report, he had great measure. More was the pity 
that such men, so worthy to be esteemed, should lose 
themselves in such a labyrinth of erring courses. 

But of all others, he that was most pitied and generally 
most commended of all men, was the next whom Mr. 
Catesby thought fit to acquaint with the matter, therein to 
have his help and assistance in all kinds, both for counsel 
and forces and provision of money, of horses and armour 
and men and followers ; in all which, put them all together 
and there was not such a man amongst them. And this 
sirEverardDigbie. was Sir Everard Digby, a Knight of great 
living and great account in his country. He was of an ancient 
and great family, whose ancestors were a great help to the 
suppressing of Richard III. the tyrant, and the bringing and 
setting up of King Henry VII. from whom our King James 
is lineally descended : whereupon King Henry did make 
Knights in the field seven brothers of his house at one time, 
from whom descended divers houses of that name, which 
live all in good reputation in their several countries. But 
this Sir Everard Dicrbv was the heir of the eldest and chiefest 
house, and one of the chiefest men in Rutlandshire where 
he dwelt, as his ancestors had done before him, though he 
had also much living in Leicestershire and other shires 
adjoining. His estate was not fully come into his hands, 



88 A Narrative of 

for his mother lived, who had above seven or eight hundred 
pounds a year ; but he had in his hands above 2,000 marks 
a year. This gentleman was always Catholicly affected, 
and heir unto the piety of his parents, as well as to their 
living : for they were ever the most noted and known 
Catholics in that country. And although this gentleman 
being left a ward by his Father's untimely death, was not 
brought up Catholicly in his youth, but at the University 
by his guardians, as other young gentlemen use to be ; yet 
when he came to be of riper years, and had the guiding of 
himself and his own estate, he affected most the company 
of Catholics and finding by them the necessity not only of 
believing but of practising also and professing that religion, 
he presently made election rather to suffer with Catholic 
religion, and to bear with Catholics the cross of persecution 
than to rise with heresy and to be advanced in the Court, 
which until then he had followed, and was as likely to 
be raised as any there, if he would have followed the 
time. For indeed to do him right, he was as complete a 
man in all things that deserved estimation or might win 
affection, as one should see in a kingdom. He was of 
stature about two yards high, very little lower than Mr. 
Catesby but of stronger making ; of countenance so comely 
and manlike, that when he was taken and brought up to the 
Court (not in the best case to make show of himself as you 
may imagine), yet some of the chiefest in the Court seeing 
him out of a window brought in that manner, lamented 
him much, and said he was the goodliest man in the whole 
Court. He was skilful in all things that belonged unto a 
gentleman, very cunning at his weapon, much practised and 
expert in riding of great horses, of which he kept divers in 
his stable continually with a skilful rider for them. For 
other sports of hunting or hawking, which gentlemen in 
England so much use and delight in, he had the best of 
both kinds in the country round about, insomuch that he 
made that the colour of his going into Warwickshire at this 



the Gunpowder Plot. 89 

time, and of drawing company together of his friends, as it 
were to a match of hunting which he had made. For all 
manner of games which are also usual for gentlemen in foul 
weather, when they are forced to keep house, he was not 
only able therein to keep company with the best ; but was 
so cunning in them all, that those who knew him well, had 
rather take his part than be against him. He was a good 
musician and kept divers good musicians in his house ; 
and himself also could play well of divers instruments. 
But those who were well acquainted with him do affirm that 
in gifts of mind he excelled much more than in his natural 
parts ; although in those also it were hard to find so many 
in one man in such a measure. But of wisdom he had an 
extraordinary talent, such a judicial wit and so well able to 
discern and discourse of any matter, as truly I have heard 
many say they have not seen the like of a young man, and 
that his carriage and manner of discourse were more like to 
a grave Councillor of State, than to a gallant of the Court 
as he was, and a man but of twenty-six years old (w T hich 
I think was his age or thereabouts). And though his 
behaviour were courteous to all, and offensive to none, yet 
was he a man of great courage and of noted valour, which 
at his end he showed plainly to the world, all men seeing 
and affirming that he made no account at all of death. 
He was so studious a follower of virtue, after he became 
Catholic, that he gave great comfort to those that had the 
guiding of his soul (as I have heard them seriously affirm 
more than once or twice), he used his prayers daily both 
mental and vocal, and daily and diligent examination of his 
conscience : the Sacraments he frequented devoutly every 
week, and to that end kept a Priest in his house continually, 
who for virtue and learning hath not many his betters in 
England. Briefly I have heard it reported of this Knight by 
those that knew him well, and that were often in his com- 
pany, that they did note in him a special care of avoiding 
all occasions of sin and of furthering acts of virtue in what 



90 A Narrative of 

he could ; to which end he was not only studious to bring 
as many to be Catholics as he could (studying books of 
purpose to enable himself in that kind), and brought in 
divers of that sort and some of great account and place. 
Not only in this highest kind, wherein he took very great joy 
and comfort, but also in ordinary talk, when he had observed 
that the speech did tend to any evil, as detraction or other 
kind of evil words which sometimes will happen in company, 
his custom was presently to take some occasion to alter the 
talk, and cunningly to bring in some other good matter or 
profitable subject to talk of. And this, when the matter was 
not very grossly evil, or spoken to the dishonour of God or 
disgrace of His servants ; for then, his zeal and courage 
were such, that he could not bear it, but would publicly and 
stoutly contradict it, whereof I could give divers instances 
worth relating, but am loth to hold the reader longer; having 
written thus much of him, that it may appear what was the 
cause why he was so much and so generally lamented, and 
is so much esteemed and praised by all sorts in England, 
both Catholics and others, although neither side do or 
can approve this last outrageous and exorbitant attempt 
against our King and country, wherein a man otherwise so 
worthy, was so unworthily lost and cast away to the great 
grief of all that knew him and especially of all that loved 
him. And truly it was hard to do the one and not the 
other. 

Mr. Francis Tresham. The last of all that was called to be 
partaker in this treacherous plot was Mr. Francis Tresham, 
a gentleman of Northamptonshire of great estate, esteemed 
then worth 3,000/. a year. His parents had been long time 
Catholic and his father often in prison for his conscience, 
although he paid the statute duly besides of 20/. a month for 
his refusing to go to Church with heretics. This gentleman 
had been wild in his youth, and even till his end was not 
known to be of so good example as the rest, though, towards 
his later years, much reclaimed and good hope conceived of 



the Gunpowder Plot. 91 

him by divers of good judgment. I think Mr. Catesby 
(who was his near kinsman) did chiefly acquaint him with 
the matter in regard of his help by provision of money 
which Mr. Tresham was as well able to do as the best, 
and thought to be as likely to be both faithful and forward 
as any, having been, before, a companion with them in 
that action of the Earl of Essex in Queen Elizabeth's 
time, and both then and since, continually discontented 
with the proceedings of the State. But it is thought by 
most, that Mr. Tresham had not that zeal for the advance- 
ment of the Catholics' cause in respect of itself, as the others 
had. And it seems by Mr. Winter's confession, they also 
repented afterwards that they had made him of their 
council, fearing him to be the man who had opened the 
matter and so defeated them of their purpose ; whereof 
I must treat in the next chapter. 

But these gentlemen being thus added to the number 
of the conspirators, they then began to conclude amongst 
themselves how everything should be acted, as saith Mr. 
Winter. They designed Mr. Faulkes to be the man that 
should strike that first and fatal stroke and attend upon the 
powder ready prepared in the cellar, to set it on fire with a 
match, when the hour appointed should be come, which 
should be the first day of the Parliament, because then the 
King would certainly be there, and all the Lords also (but 
those whom they meant to keep from thence by some 
means or other), likewise all their Bishops and most of the 
chiefest Puritans of the land. 

Mr. Percy his office should be (with a certain company 
ready to assist him) presently after that first blow to enter 
the place where the young Prince or the Duke Charles 
were kept, to seize upon his person, who being safely 
placed in the custody of Catholics, presently they would 
have proclaimed him King. Sir Everard Digby was in 
Warwickshire at the time appointed, as it was agreed 
amongst them, where, under pretence of a hunting match 



92 A Narrative of 

(having brought his hawks and hounds to Dunsmore Heath 
for the purpose, and hunted there two or three days before), 
he gathered many of his friends together, and had himself 
great store of men, and many fair and goodly horses. 
He had also made great provision of armour and shot, 
which he sent before him in a cart with some trusty 
servants, and had made ready above 1,000/. in ready coin, 
as his servants since have averred that did escape, and one 
of them delivered up great part of the money to the King's 
officers so soon as he saw his master fallen into the lapse. 

Their intention was that if they failed of the Prince 
or Duke about London, which was not unlike they 
should, then would some of them hasten down to Sir 
Everard Digby after the blow were given, others stopping 
the ways that no news might pass but by their permis- 
sion ; and then should Sir Everard Digby have made 
sure, with his forces and friends, to have taken the Lady 
Elizabeth out of the Lord Harrington his hands, whom 
then they would presently have proclaimed heir-apparent 
to the Crown. Then had they (as is expressed in their 
confessions) a proclamation ready penned, wherein they 
would have commanded all sorts of men, by authority 
of the Prince or Princess, who would have been in their 
custody, to assist the quiet settling of the young King 
or Queen in their seat. They would have offered freedom 
from all taxes and impositions, and payments of subsidies, 
and such like ; and for religion, they would have left it 
as yet free for all sorts to follow their own conscience 
without compulsion, which afterwards they meant (saith 
the printed confession) to have set better in order. And 
so indeed the Catholics are able to perform it, if they 
might have freedom, by many means more effectual than 
force of arms, in such an unsettled State as that must 
needs have been for a time ; and by many means more 
effectual than heretics have, who therefore only use the 
sword. For, if the truth might freely be preached, if 



the Gunpowder Plot. 93 

the lives and examples of Catholics, and especially of 
Religious Orders, might be seen and suffered in public, 
if those that be followers of the Apostles, and expert in 
their trade of fishing for men, might be freely permitted 
to use and show their skill in gaining of souls, no doubt 
then but the sun shining so bright, as it would be seen 
to do in the doctrine of Truth, would disperse the clouds 
of error ; no doubt but the candle set upon the candlestick- 
would give light unto many minds that now are groping 
in the Egyptian darkness of heresy. And no question 
but many and great fishes would be taken, when the night 
being past, our Lord would both license and direct His 
servants to cast their net on the right hand, and that such 
a net as would not break, the net of Peter that is entire and 
undivided, although it be able to catch at one draught a 

joan. 21. hundred, fifty and three great fishes, wherein is 
designed by a great and certain number an uncertain and 
not to be numbered gain of souls, that the Apostles and 
Apostolic men should gain to Christ. And this these 
gentlemen hoped had been the time. But God, in Whose 
only hands and disposition are the moments of time, and 
Who hath placed bounds and limits unto the sea, and saith 

job 3 s. unto it, "Usque hue venies et non procedes amplius 
et hie confringes tumentes fluctus tuos: " x He Wlio is the 
Master must be also the Measurer of time, and He will not 
easily make men of His council when their afflictions shall 
end and how far they shall proceed ; especially such men as 
themselves will not follow counsel, but run headlong upon 
such a course as this, which no wise man could or would 
have counselled. No, on the contrary side, that was verified 
in this practice which Christ foretold unto St. Peter, when 
upon zeal he drew his sword in defence of his Master, 

Matt 26. " Omnes qui acceperint gladium, gladio peribunt," 2 

1 " Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no further, and here thou shall 
break thy swelling waves " (Job xxxviii. n). 

2 "All that take the sword, shall perish with the sword" (St. Matt. xxvi. 52). 



94 A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 

said our Lord, forewarning all men, that howsoever they 
may receive the sword or use it, when it is given them 
by authority (as it is to all lawful governors and officers in 
commonwealths), yet to take the sword (which noteth a 
private will or power not authorized) is not without a 
fault, nor shall be without a fall. And so it happened 
to these conspirators, as the sequent chapter will declare. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HOW, THE PARLIAMENT DRAWING NEAR, THE WHOLE 
PLOT WAS DISCOVERED, AND THAT WHICH ENSUED 
THEREUPON. 

The mercies of God are great, and His patient expectance 

of us, granting time and occasions and motives to repent, 

is most gracious and full of longanimity. The foresaid 

conspirators had intended and prepared, as you have heard, 

the utter destruction and overthrow both of the King with 

the chiefest of his family, of the Council also, with most of 

the nobility, and with their clergy, and others that belonged 

to both the Houses of Parliament. But the mercies of 

God were such, that He would not permit so great and 

universal a ruin to light upon so many, and amongst them 

so many worthy persons, amongst whom, it is to be hoped, 

His infinite wisdom hath foreseen many upon whom His 

goodness will bestow His grace hereafter, and so make 

them vessels of election, who now perhaps, in ignorant 

zeal, do persecute the servants of Christ and Christ in 

them. 

And if there were any there who finally will prove but 

Matt. i 3 . cockle in the field, yet the Father of the family 

would not have them so digged out as His unskilful 

servants desired, " ne forte eradicantibus illis zizania, eradi- 

catum fuisset simul et triticum." 1 We hope and pray for 

much good unto many of those, who should have been 

present at that eruption of fire, if it had succeeded according 

to their intent, which God forbid. And God did forbid 

it, for no doubt it was His will it should be discovered, 

1 "Lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together 
with it " (St. Matt. xiii. 29). 



96 A Narrative of 

which happened in this manner. About ten days before 
the Parliament should have begun the Lord Mounteagle 
(whose affection to Catholics hath long time been known 
unto divers) being at his own house and at supper, a man 
came to his page in the street and delivered him a letter 
wishing him to deliver the same unto his Lord's own 
hands, which the page performed, but made no stay of 
the bringer thereof, who presently departed. The Lord 
Mounteagle not knowing the hand, and seeing no name 
subscribed, caused one of his men to read it unto him, 
and it was of this tenour. 

^LordTlounte-le 116 " M >" L ° rd > OUt ° f the loVe l beai " t0 SOme 

of your friends, I have a care of your preservation, therefore 
I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some 
excuse to shift off your attendance at this Parliament, for 
God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness 
of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement, 
but retire yourself into your country, where you may expect 
the event in safety. For though there be no appearance 
of any stir, yet, I say, they shall receive a terrible blow 
this Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts 
them. This counsel is not to be contemned, because it 
may do you good, and can do you no harm, for the 
danger is past so soon as you have burnt the letter. And 
I hope God will give you the grace to make use of it, 
to Whose holy protection I commend you." 

This was the letter which the Lord Mounteagle having 
considered, and seeing so dangerous matter contained in it, 
he presently went to the Lord of Salisbury, who is Chief 
Secretary to His Majesty, and delivered the letter unto 
him, with relation of all circumstances in the receipt and 
reading of the letter. The Lord of Salisbury seemed 
not at the first to make any great account of it, yet said 
he would acquaint some other Lords of the Council with 
the same, and commended the Lord Mounteagle for his 
fidelity and care of His Majesty's safety, and of the State, 



the Gunpowder Plot. 97 

and presently showed the letter to the Lord Chamberlain, 
and then both of them thought the letter might have some 
relation with other informations the Lord of Salisbury 
had received from beyond seas, concerning some business 
intended by the Papists ; and they seemed to think 
there might be some perilous attempt intended. And 
therefore they two concluded to join with them three 
other of the Council, to wit, the Lord Admiral, the Earl 
of Worcester and Northampton, to be acquainted with 
this matter ; who having all of them concurred together to 
the examination of the contents of the said letter, they 
did conclude (saith the book written of the discovery of 
this treason) that how slight soever a matter it might 
at the first appear, yet was it not absolutely to be con- 
temned, in respect of the care which it behoved them to 
have of the preservation of His Majesty's person. Yet they 
resolved, for two reasons, first to acquaint the King himself 
with the same, before they proceeded to any further 
inquisition in the matter, as well (saith the book) for the 
expectation and experience they had of His Majesty's 
fortunate judgment in clearing and solving of obscure 
riddles and doubtful mysteries, as also because the more 
time would in the meanwhile be given for the practice to 
ripen (if any was) whereby the discovery might be the more 
clear and evident, and the ground of proceeding thereupon 
more safe, just, and easy. And so according to their 
determination the said Earl of Salisbury did repair to 
the King upon the Friday after, being All-Hallow-day, 
which was the day after His Majesty's arrival from Royston, 
where he had been at his hunting exercise, and was come 
up to London to be present at the beginning of the Parlia- 
ment. The Earl therefore finding the King alone in 
his gallery, without any other speech or judgment giving 
of the letter, but only relating simply the form of the 
delivery thereof, he presented it to His Highness. The 
King no sooner read the letter, but after a little pause, 
H 



98 A Narrative of 

and then reading it over again, he delivered his judgment 
of it in such sort, as he thought it was not to be con- 
temned ; for that the style of it seemed to be more quick 
and pithy than is usual to be in any pasquil or libel, 
the superfluities of idle brains. But the Earl of Salisbury 
perceiving the King to apprehend it deeplier than he looked 
for, knowing his nature, told him that he thought by one 
sentence in it, that it was like to be written by some 
fool or madman, reading to him that sentence in it, " For 
the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the letter," 
which he said was likely to be the saying of a fool ; 
for if the danger was past so soon as the letter was burnt, 
then the warning behoved to be of little avail, when the 
burning of the letter might make the danger to be 
eschewed. But the King by the contrary, considering the 
former sentence in the letter, "That they should receive 
a terrible blow at this Parliament, and yet should not 
see who hurt them ;" joining it to the sentence immediately 
following already alleged, did thereupon conjecture that 
the danger mentioned should be some sudden danger by 
blowing up of powder. For no other insurrection, rebellion, 
or whatsoever other private and desperate attempt could 
be committed or attempted in time of Parliament and the 
authors thereof unseen except only if it were by a blowing- 
up of powder, which might be performed by one base 
knave in a dark corner : whereupon he was moved to 
interpret and construe the later sentence in the letter 
(alleged by the Earl of Salisbury against all ordinary sense 
and construction in grammar) as if by these words, " For the 
danger is past as soon as you have burned the letter," 
should be closely understood the suddenty and quickness 
of the danger, which should be as quickly performed and 
at an end, as that paper should be of blazing up in the fire, 
turning the word of "as soon" to the sense of "as quickly;" 
and therefore His Majesty wished that before his going to 
the Parliament, the under rooms to the Parliament House 



the Gunpowder Plot. 99 

might be well and narrowly searched. The Earl of Salis- 
bury wondering at this His Majesty's commentary, which 
he knew to be so far contrary to his ordinary and natural 
disposition, who did rather ever sin upon the other side* 
in not apprehending nor trusting the advertisements of 
practices and perils when he was freely informed of them, 
and interpreting rightly this extraordinary caution at this 
time to proceed from the vigilant care he had of the whole 
State more than of his own person, yet he thought good 
to dissemble still unto the King, that there was any just 
cause of such apprehension, and ended the present talk 
with some merry jest as his custom is. But though he 
seemed to neglect it to His Majesty, yet he could not be 
at rest till with the Lord Chamberlain he came again unto 
His Majesty, at which time it was agreed that the said 
Lord Chamberlain should according to his custom and 
office view all the Parliament Houses both above and 
below, and consider what likelihood or appearance of any 
such danger might be gathered : but yet this was deferred 
until the afternoon before the sitting down of the Parlia- 
ment, which was upon the Monday following : at what time, 
he according to this conclusion went to the Parliament 
House accompanied with the Lord Mounteagle, where 
having viewed all the lower rooms, he found in the vault 
under the Upper House great store and provision of billets, 
faggots, and coals : and inquiring of Whyneyard, keeper of 
the wardrobe, to what use he had put the lower rooms and 
cellars, he told him that Mr. Thomas Percy had hired both 
the house and part of the cellar or vault under the same and 
that the wood and coal therein was the said gentleman's 
own provision. Whereupon the Lord Chamberlain looking 
into the room perceived a fellow standing in a corner, who 
called himself the said Percy his man, and keeper of that 
house for him, but indeed was Guido Faulks, the man that 
should have acted that monstrous tragedy. 

The Lord Chamberlain looking upon all things with a 



too A Narrative of 

heedful eye, though in outward show he seemed careless, 
presently addressed himself to the King, and in the presence 
of the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Admiral, the Earls of 
Worcester, Northampton, and Salisbury, he made his report 
what he had seen and observed there, affirming that he did 
wonder not a little at the extraordinary great provision of 
wood and coal in that house where Thomas Percy had so 
seldom occasion to remain, as likewise it gave him in his 
mind, that his man looked like a very tall and desperate 
fellow. This could not but increase the King's former appre- 
hension, whereupon he willed that those billets and coals 
should be searched to the bottom : and of the same opinion 
were the Lords there present, although they thought it fit to 
have it done in the night, and by a Justice of Peace only 
under pretence of searching for some of the King s stuff 
that was missing ; and this for two reasons ; one was lest 
if nothing were found, it should seem the King and State 
were too suspicious of every light toy ; also for that they 
said it would lay an ill-favoured imputation upon the Earl 
of Northumberland, one of His Majesty's greatest subjects 
and Councillors : this Thomas Percy being his kinsman and 
most confident familiar. 

Thus far the book of the discovery of this treason dis- 
coursed of the manner how the same did come to light. 
And because the same was set forth by authority, with desire 
that men all should conceive this to be the manner how it 
came to light, it may be thought that so it was. Yet there 
want not many others of great judgment, that think His 
Majesty and divers of those Councillors also, who had the 
scanning of the letter, to be well able in shorter time and 
with fewer doubts to decipher a darker riddle and find out 
a greater secret than that matter was, after so plain a letter 
was delivered, importing in so plain terms an intended 
punishment both by God and man, and so terrible a blow 
to be given at that very time and yet the actors invisible. 
And those that be of this opinion do persuade themselves 



the Gunpowder Plot. 101 

the matter came out by some other means, and that this 
letter was but framed and sent of purpose to give another 
show of casual discovery both to hide the true means and 
to make the especial preservation of the King and State to 
be better discerned to come from God Himself. Unto 
which opinion they were the rather inclined by the circum- 
stance of the matter. First, in that the Lord Mounteagle did 
that night wherein the letter was to be delivered, appoint a 
supper to be made for him at his own house a mile or two 
out of London, where he had not supped or lain of a twelve- 
month and more before that time, and therefore strange thaj- 
party should seek him there. Then the manner of delivery 
seemed strange, to be so weakly handled by any that had 
judgment as to be delivered to a page and to be read by 
his Lord in the time of supper, when he could not with 
safety have concealed the matter, if he would. Again it 
was so written, as that my Lord of Salisbury might well 
say it was like to be the writing of a fool or a madman. For 
no other assuredly would have committed so great a secret 
to ink and paper in so plain manner and that so long 
before the time ; especially there being many other means 
likely enough to be effectual for the staying of my Lord 
Mounteagle from the Parliament that one day, and that 
without his danger of concealing any practice against the 
State. For if some special friend had seemed to be in 
extremity and sent for him in the instant, he would not 
have failed him. Besides many sudden occasions would 
have sufficed, as a certain and present opportunity of some 
commodious bargain for provision of money or jewels or 
such like, which courtiers often have want of, if another 
time would not have served, would have been more likely 
to call him that very morning than this letter so delivered 
to stay him ten days before. 

But although many Avere of opinion that this was not 
the first means of this discovery, yet none that ever I could 
hear of, was able to give a certain judgment, which way 



102 A Narrative of 

indeed it was discovered. It seems the gentlemen themselves 
did most fear Mr. Francis Tresham to be the man that should 
send this letter unto the Lord Mounteagle, which Lord had 
married Mr. Tresham his sister. But that was nothing likely, 
for he was very witty ; and surely the sending of such a 
letter in such a manner was nothing wittingly contrived, if 
it were done bona fide ; neither would Mr. Tresham have 
adventured his life and estate (which was great) for his 
brother-in-law, if he had not thought him worthy of further 
trust. For if he did not think the letter would persuade, 
why should he write it so plainly to the overthrow of 
the business and so also of himself, which if the Lord 
followed not his counsel, must needs follow. And if 
he did believe it would persuade, why did he not rather 
do it by word of mouth the very morning it should 
have been done, which for divers reasons had been most 
likely to be effectual ; whereas on the other side he might 
well think the Lord Mounteagle could not discern by the 
letter, whether it came from friend or foe, being without 
name and in an unknown hand : and from a friend he 
could not think it being sent in so simple and yet so public 
manner. If from a foe, he were undone, if he did conceal 
it. No, Mr. Tresham had too much wit to deal so sillily in a 
thing of such importance. More did doubt want of fidelity 
than of wit in Mr. Tresham, and therefore it was rather 
supposed, by most that doubted him to be the man, that 
he first opened the matter unto the Council, as thinking 
thereby to be raised to some place of credit, which then he 
might think himself with wit and living able to bear out with 
the best. This opinion was the rather believed afterwards, 
when it was evident that none of the rest had done it, who 
were privy unto the matter ; but that every one of them either 
died in the field because they would not be taken, or being 
taken were all executed and so left not the least suspicion 
of having opened the matter. Again, this opinion was 
increased when the matter being discovered, all the gentle- 



the Gunpowder Plot. 103 

men fled into Warwickshire and then according to their 
former designments, rose in arms, thinking to have made a 
head. But Mr. Tresham staid still in London and never 
stirred foot, though as far in as the best. And thirdly, the 
opinion was yet more confirmed when afterwards Mr. 
Tresham was also taken and kept close prisoner, at which 
time the general bruit was, that he confessed all he 
knew ; but none of his confesssions were published, neither 
did himself ever come to light afterwards, but died in the 
Tower ; so that it is not known what he had discovered first 
or last, or what he would have confirmed, or repented, if 
he had come unto his trial and execution as the rest 
did. 

But whosoever w T as the discoverer of this matter or by 
what means soever it came to light, we are much to thank 
God that it was discovered, from whom we must acknow- 
ledge the benefit received as from the chief cause, "a quo 
omne donum optimum et omne bonum procedit," 1 and 
these especially which most concern the public good. 

The letter therefore being so understood as before I 
declared, and the place itself being viewed by the Lord 
Chamberlain giving such cause of suspicion, as is already 
noted, that night following being Monday night (when the 
Parliament should have begun and ended also the next day) 
Sir Thomas Knevet, a gentleman of His Majesty's Privy 
Chamber, was sent to search the place at midnight under 
pretence of looking for some other things as was before 
devised. When he came to the Parliament House before his 
entry into Mr. Percy his lodging, he found the foresaid man 
that had the keeping of the house for Mr. Percy standing 
without the house and seeing him with his clothes on and 
booted at so dead a time of the night, the Justice appre- 
hended him : and after went forward to the searching of the 
house, where after he had caused to be overturned some of 
the billets and coals, he first found one of the small barrels 

1 " Every best gift and every perfect is from above : ' (St. James i. 17). 



104 A Narrative of 

of powder, and after, all the rest, to the number of thirty- 
six barrels great and small. And thereafter searching the 
fellow whom he had taken, found three matches and all 
other instruments fit for blowing up of the powder ready 
upon him : which made him instantly to confess what his 
intent was, affirming withal that if he had happened to have 
been within the house when he was taken, as he was 
immediately before at the ending of his work, he would not 
have failed to have blown up the Justice, house and all, 
belike imagining that some part of the danger might have 
lit upon the Court and done some harm to those, to whom 
he most desired it. For otherwise I know not what 
meaning he should have, unless by his own sudden death 
also, which would have followed, he meant to escape the 
extremity of torture which he might well expect : but 
this we did not hear that he attempted afterwards to 
himself nor seemed to desire it. 

This done, the prisoner was carried fast bound unto 
the Court and the news of all particulars presently carried 
unto the King by those of the Council who lay in the 
house, although it were but four hours after midnight. 
Afterwards all the rest of the Council being sent for 
into the town, they examined the prisoner, who both to 
the Council and to all the rest that spake with him that 
day, appeared so constant and settled upon his grounds, 
as all the Council said they thought they had found another 
Mutius Scaevola born in England. For notwithstanding the 
horror of the fact, his sudden surprising, the terror which 
might have been stricken into him by coming into such a 
presence and the restless and confused questions that every 
man all that day did vex him with, yet was his countenance 
so far from being dejected, as he often smiled in scornful 
manner, not only avowing the fact, but repenting only with 
the said Scaevola his failing in the execution thereof, 
whereof, he said, the devil and not God was the discoverer : 
answering quickly to every man's objection, scoffing at 



the Gicnpowdcr Plot. 105 

many idle questions that were propounded unto him and 
jesting with such as he thought had no authority to 
examine him. All that day the Council could get nothing 
out of him concerning his complices, refusing to answer to 
any such questions which he thought might discover the 
plot and laying all the blame upon himself, whereunto he 
said he was moved only for religion and conscience sake, 
denying the King to be his lawful sovereign or the anointed 
of God, in respect he was an heretic ; and would acknowledge 
no other name to himself but John Johnson, servant to 
Thomas Percy. But after he had been three or four days 
in the Tower and was threatened the rack only, as the 
printed book saith (though the common voice was, that he 
was extremely racked the first days), then, whether to avoid 
torments, or for that he might understand that the gentle- 
men had discovered themselves by rising up in arms in the 
country, he then named some of his complices, with his own 
name also, and how the matter was broken unto him, and 
how begun and prosecuted, as I have before declared ; 
yet I cannot find by his confession which is published in 
print, that he named above six of those who had wrought 
in the mine and provision of the powder and who then were 
all known to be up in arms. And here we must leave this 
prisoner, who now was known to be Guido Faulks, close kept 
in the Tower ; and will let you see what course the rest of 
the conspirators took, when they understood the matter was 
plainly discovered. 

First, upon the knowledge that such a letter was 
delivered to the Lord Mounteagle ten days before, they 
grew very doubtful of the matter, and fearing only Mr. 
Tresham in that kind, had divers meetings with him to 
examine and try him how far he had proceeded. But he 
forswearing all and that he knew nothing how it came 
about, they had divers consultations what were best to do ; 
but (as Mr. Thomas Winter saith in his confession) first 
that Mr. Catesby resolved, he would not fly his country, 



106 A Narrative of 

he would see further yet. And then they sent Mr. 
Faulks to see if all were well in the cellar, who adventured 
to go notwithstanding the doubt and returned to them at 
night and told them all was yet well, which it seems gave 
them some hope, yet afterwards when they heard what 
conference had passed between my Lord of Salisbury and 
His Majesty about the letter, they gave it lost the second 
time, and then Mr. Catesby would not go until Mr. Percy 
were come up, who came the next day and he would needs 
abide the uttermost trial. But upon Tuesday morning 
(which was the day appointed for the fact) Mr. Faulks being 
taken in the search that night as is declared, they heard and 
saw so many and so plain circumstances, that they must 
needs know the whole matter was discovered and no hope at 
all that way to be left them, Then they, being all excellently 
well horsed, rode into the country keeping the highway; but 
so fast a pace and with such a resolution, that it was very 
hard to overtake them and would not have been easy to have 
stayed them. They rode two and three together ; and they 
did ride that day notwithstanding the foulness of the winter 
ways to Dunchurch (which I take it, is almost eighty 1 miles), 
where Sir Everard Digby stayed in readiness to have 
surprised the person of the King's daughter in case they 
had brought other news. But they bringing such news as 
was little expected and less welcome, as it may well be 
supposed, they all entered into consultation what was best 
to be done, and it was much marvelled at by divers of Sir 
Everard Digby his friends, who were there with him in 
company for his match of hunting, to see so many gallant 
gentlemen come in of sudden so late in the evening and so 
well appointed. And seeing them enter into serious con- 
sulation in a chamber apart, they knew not what to make 
of it ; but soon after they might perceive, when they all 
came out, as men resolved upon some enterprise. And Sir 
Everard caused all his men and horses presently to be ready 

1 Is above 60. Erased in Ori?. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 107 

and departed with them. Mr. Catesby also and other of the 
gentlemen had prepared their horses and furniture ready in 
that place beforehand, although they thought they should 
have used it with more advantage. For now when the 
matter was known and bruited in the country, that such an 
act should have been performed in London, which had 
failed and that all was safe there, and that it was apparent 
these were the conspirators by the course they took, none 
would come to assist them ; x nor had they any with them, 
but such servants and followers as themselves had provided 
beforehand under other pretences, which therefore for 
danger of giving suspicion could not be many. Neither do 
I think they were ever above eighty in the whole company, 
although the fame in other countries went first that they were 
150, then 300, and some said they were 1,000 strong. But 
if that had been so, it is like the matter had not been so 
soon ended, as it proved to be. 2 But these conspirators, as 
it seems, hoped the matter would prove otherwise than it 
did, and that many would have joined with them, when once 
they saw them gathered to a head. And to make their 
rising the more bruited and withal to furnish themselves of 
some horses for the great saddle, they went presently to 
Warwick and there out of a house which is adjoining to the 
Castle, they seized upon certain great horse belonging to 
some noblemen and gentlemen which were kept there by a 
rider to be taught. From thence they went and took all 
my Lord Winsor's armour, which by report was able to 
furnish a much greater company then ever they had with 
them. From thence they went forward through Worcester- 

1 Neither friends to their persons, nor friends to their religion. Erased in 
Orig. 

- But this bruit, indeed, had been the likeliest way to increase their number 
by the resort of other Catholics from other countries, if the fact itself had not 
disliked other Catholics, and their minds had not been well prepared before- 
hand to refuse all such attempts by the persuasion of Father Ganiett and others 
by his direction, according to the order sent from His Holiness and the like 
commandment also from Father General and Father Persons, as before hath 
been declared. Erased in Orig. 



108 A Narrative of 

shire towards Staffordshire, offering no violence or hurt 
to any. 1 

The country in the meantime began to rise on every 
side, yet none did as yet set upon them, nor until Friday 
following ; 2 and on Thursday night they came to one 
Mr. Stephen Littleton's house in Staffordshire, who had 
adjoined himself unto them. And being there it pleased 
God to send them such a fortune as seemed very much 
to alter their resolutions, and made them resolve neither 
to fight nor fly, but to give up themselves willingly unto> 
death. For in the morning early when some were gone- 
abroad to discover what companies were coming, and. 
others were preparing their shot and powder in a readi- 
ness, because there was some of the powder that they 
thought to be somewhat dankish which they set before 
the fire and were busy about it, whilst behold, a spark 
falling out of the fire took hold of the powder, and that 
blowing up, hurt divers of them, especially Mr. Catesby, 
Mr. Rookewood, but most of all Mr. Grant, whose face was 
much disfigured, and his eyes almost burnt out. This 
loe 3 made them see it was not best for them to proceed 
in their commenced course ; and, as it seems, they took 
it for a sign of God's will that He would not have them 
prepare to resist, but rather to prepare themselves to 
suffer, which they did. For, as Mr. Thomas Winter said 
in his confession, when himself (with Mr. Littleton being 
abroad in the fields to discover) had understood of this 
heavy chance, and the matter being told him by his man 

1 But expecting belike that clivers Catholic gentlemen of those countries 
(where there be very many, and some of great worth and large estates) should 
have come unto them. And Mr. Thomas Winter was sent unto one of the 
greatest (whose daughter Mr. Robert Winter aforesaid had married), but he 
caused his gates to be shut against him and would not so much as hear him 
speak. And yet the said gentleman was afterward in great trouble and had like 
to have lost all his estate, as bearing good-will unto them. Erased in Orig. 
The lines of erasure extend over the follotving sentence also. 

2 This must be in. Orig. in marg. 

3 Compare the German "Lohe," a flame. Some English dictionaries give 
" Low," a local and obsolete word, with the same meaning. — Ed. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 109 

in worse sort than indeed it was (to wit, that Mr. Catesby, 
Mr. Rookewood, and Mr. Grant were burnt up with powder, 
and the rest of the company dispersed upon sight thereof), 
he resolving not to fly, as Mr. Littleton advised him, but 
first to see and bury the body of his friend Mr. Catesby, 
so returned back to the house, and there found the gentle- 
men reasonable well in respect of what he had heard, 
and asked them what they resolved to do. They answered, 
" We mean here to die." Then said Mr. Thomas Winter, 
" I will take such part as you do." Then they all fell 
earnestly to their prayers, the Litanies and such like (as 
since some of the company affirmed that escaped taking, 
being none of the conspirators, but such as joined with 
them in the country) ; they also spent an hour in medi- 
tation, and divers of their company departed to shift for 
themselves, the house being not yet beset. 

About an hour before mid-day the High Sheriff came 
with the forces of the country and beset the house. Mr. 
Thomas Winter going into the court of the house was 
shot into the shoulder with which he lost the use of his 
arm. The next shot was the elder Wright, who was 
stricken dead. After him the younger Wright, and fourthly 
Mr. Rookewood, but he was only wounded in four or 
five places, and so taken and afterwards put to death at 
London. So were also Mr. Thomas Winter and Mr. Grant 
and all the rest but Mr. Catesby and Mr. Percy, who 
resolved they would not be taken, but rather suffer death 
at that time in the field. Wherefore Mr. Catesby took 
from his neck a cross of gold which he always used to 
wear about him, and blessing himself with it and kissing 
it, showed it unto the people, protesting there solemnly 
before them all, it was only for the honour of the Cross, 
and the exaltation of that Faith which honoured the Cross, 
and for the saving of their souls in the same Faith, that 
had moved him to undertake the business ; and sith he 
saw it was not God's will it should succeed in that manner 



no A Narrative of 

they intended or at that time, he was willing and ready 
to give his life for the same cause, only he would not 
be taken by any, and against that only he would defend 
himself with his sword. 1 This done, Mr. Catesby and Mr. 
Percy turned back to back, resolving to yield themselves to 
no man, but to death as to the messenger of God. None 
of their adversaries did come near them ; but one fellow 
standing behind a tree with a musket shot them both 
with one bullet, and Mr. Catesby was shot almost dead, the 
other lived three or four days. 2 Mr. Catesby being fallen 
to the ground, as they say, went upon his knees into the 
house, and there got a picture of our Blessed Lady in his 
arms (unto whom he was accustomed to be very devout), 
and so embracing and kissing the same he died. 

Some of the chiefest of them did think to have escaped, 
as Sir Everard Digby, Mr. Robert Winter, and Mr. Stephen 
Littleton ; and these two last knowing the country better 
than the other, did indeed escape for the time. 3 Sir 
Everard Digby thinking also to take that course, offered all 
his servants that they might take their horses and money 
and shift for themselves. But his page and one other said 
they would never leave him but against their will. There- 
fore being well mounted, they three went together, but 
they found the country so up on every side, and all 
drawing towards the place where the voice was the con- 
spirators were beset, that it was not possible for them to 
pass or go unknown, especially Sir Everard Digby, being 
so noted a man for his stature and personage, and withal 
so well appointed as he was. Whereupon he did rather 
choose (after he had gained a little ground) to strike into 

1 He also protested there was no more the conspiracy than those who had 
there published themselves by that public rising in arms. Erased in Orig. 
This is not good to be in, 'because of Mr. Tresham, who was one, and not with 
them. In marg. in another hand. 

2 If he lived so many days, he should have carried from that place and 
examined, etc. In marg. in yet another hand. 

3 And got to some friends' houses, where they lived safe for a month or 
more, but afterwards were discovered and taken. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 1 1 1 

a wood, and thought there in a dry pit to have staid 
with his horses until the company had been passed. But 
they tracked his horses unto the very pit side, and then 
cried out, " Here he is, here he is." Sir Everard being 
altogether undaunted, answered, " Here he is indeed, what 
then ? " and advanced his horse in the manner of curvetting 
(which he was expert in) and thought to have borne them 
over, and so to break from them, esteeming them to be 
but ten or twelve persons, whom he saw about the pit, 
and though he made them easily give way, yet then he 
saw above a hundred people hard by and coming upon 
him : so that seeing it in vain to resist, he willingly yielded 
himself to the likeliest man of the company, upon a desire 
he had to have some time before his death for his better 
preparation, and withal out of a desire (as it afterwards 
appeared) to have done some service to the Catholic cause 
by word, sith he saw he could not do it by the sword. 
For being then taken and carried up to London prisoner 
and to the Court, he made earnest request to have spoken 
with His Majesty if it might have been admitted, intending 
to lay down the causes so plainly which had moved them 
to this attempt, and withal how dangerous it was for His 
Majesty to take the course he did, as that he hoped to per- 
suade at least some mitigation, if not toleration, for Catholics. 
But the Council knowing well how judicial a man he 
was, and how well able to work his intent with sound 
reasons, would not assent unto his desire, but sent him 
presently prisoner unto the Tower, where also all the 
rest of the conspirators that were taken at Mr. Littleton's 
in Staffordshire were presently lodged upon their bringing 
up, which was as soon as their hurts would give them leave 
to travel. So that only four were slain in the country, 
Mr. Robert Catesby, Mr. Thomas Percy, Mr. John Wright, 
and his brother, Christopher Wright The rest were all 
put into the Tower for further trial according to law, which 
were these : Sir Everard Digby, Mr. Ambrose Rookewood, 



ii2 A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 

Mr. Thomas Winter, Mr. John Grant, Mr. Robert Keyes, Mr. 
Francis Tresham, and Mr. Guido Faulks, who were there 
before ; unto them also were adjoined afterwards, Mr. 
Robert Winter and Mr. Stephen Littleton, who being dis- 
covered 1 in one place where they had been at least a 
month, they went into a house of the Widow Littleton's 
a woman of great estate, and there were kept in a chamber 
by Humphrey Littleton, her alliance, she being then at 
London ; but their being in that house was found out 
by the cook of the house, in the provision of meal, and 
so by him they were discovered, and taken by the next 
Justices and so carried up to London and laid with the 
rest in the Tower. All 2 these prisoners were divers times 
examined, but only two of their examinations published 
in print, which were of Mr. Guido Faulks and Mr. Thomas 
Winter, both which agreed in one, only Mr. Winter's was 
the larger, and contained much of the matter which I 
have before expressed, concerning their first intention, the 
names and number of the conspirators, the course they 
took to keep it secret, their manner of proceeding in the 
whole, and their intention afterwards to set up one of 
the King's children, and with them the Catholic religion. 
And both in all their examinations and the whole process 
of the matter it appeared plainly they were all and the 
only conspirators. The rest of the Catholics were free, 
as shall more appear in the chapter following. 3 

1 Let all this be in and stand for the end of this chapter, until you come 
to that which is blotted out. Orig. in marg. 

2 This must be in. Orig. in marg. 

3 All unto this place must be in. Orig. m marg. They affirmed constantly 
there were no other conspirators than were taken. And as for Priests, they 
did both then and at their death protest there was none in the action, 
insomuch that it was generally voiced and believed through England that there 
was no Priest accused or could be touched with the treason, which gave 
generally great satisfaction both to Catholics and others. And so in right it 
should still have continued ; but the Puritans did much envy that they should 
be free from blame, upon whom they wished rather that all might light. And 
therefore they began to practise and work the contrary opinion, first in the 
King, and afterwards in public show unto the country, as shall afterwards 
appear. Erased in Orig. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW UPON EXAMINATION OF THE PRISONERS IT WAS 
APPARENT THAT NO OTHER CATHOLICS COULD BE 
TOUCHED WITH THE CONSPIRACY. THE SAME ALSO 
CONFIRMED BY HIS MAJESTY'S OWN WORDS, TO THE 
GREAT COMFORT OF CATHOLICS. 

WHEN all these conspirators were brought to the Tower 
(which is the ordinary prison for such as are found guilty 
or suspected of high treason, and especially for persons 
of account, or in causes of great moment), they were all 
severally and several times examined by the Lords of 
the Council, and then it was in vain for them either to 
hide the matter, which was apparently known in the great 
preparation of powder which had been found, or to conceal 
the persons or qualities of the conspirators, who had all 
published themselves in prosecuting their first intended 
treason with a second attempt of public rebellion. There- 
fore all did acknowledge the fact, though none would 
directly yield it to be an offence to God, though they 
said it was so unto their Prince and the present State 
of the country. Their examinations did all agree in all 
material points, and therefore two only were published in 
print, containing the substance of the rest. And indeed 
the sum of that which I have been able to say in this 
narration touching either their first intentions or the names 
or number of the conspirators, or concerning the course 
they took to keep the matter so absolutely secret, or, 
finally, touching the manner of their beginning and pro- 
ceeding in the whole matter ; for that (as I noted before) 
it being kept as such a vowed secret in the heads and 
hearts of so few, and those also afterwards apprehended 
I 



ii4 A Narrative of 

before they could have means, to declare the particulars 
in any private manner, therefore no more can be known 
of the matter or manner of this tragedy than is found 
or gathered out of their examinations. The effect whereof 
I have set down before, in prosecution of the story, and 
shall not need here to repeat. 

But this they all agreed in, that no other Catholics were 
to be touched with the matter, nor had any ways assisted 
them therein, but those who were now well known to the 
Avhole realm by their public rising in arms, of which also 
the greatest part did but join with them in the second, and 
had not any knowledge at all of the first attempt. Here- 
upon it followed, that whereas at the first breaking out 
of this monstrous Plot most men according to their humour 
and aversion from Catholics and their religion, would 
give their censure, that sure many Papists would be touched 
with this matter, and especially the Priests no doubt were 
the devisers and incentors of this intended fiery treason. 
Now after all these prisoners had been often and seriously 
examined, their general voice was turned and their conceit 
changed, and it was as general a report both in London 
and through England, that not one Priest could be touched 
with the Plot, nor any other Catholics but those that were 
already taken, and some few others that were well known 
by their public rebellion, and were in chace in the country 
and much watch laid for them everywhere, with public 
proclamation and description of their persons, as is usual 
in such cases. This, you must think, was a great comfort 
unto Catholics in so great a distress ; and this comfort 
was much increased also, when Catholics did see that 
His Majesty did free most of his Catholic subjects 
from imputation of this crime in his proclamation about 
this matter, dated the 7th of November, which was 
after the examination and confessions of Faulks ; wherein 
naming eight principal heads or contrivers of this con- 
spiracy, who had published themselves in the country. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 1 1 5 

For in that proclamation, though at the beginning out of 
his persuasion of a contrary religion, he do say that they 
were persons known to be so utterly corrupted with the 
superstition of the Romish religion, as seduced with the 
blindness thereof; yet afterwards in the body of the same 
proclamation he doth prudently and more equally dis- 
tinguish between them and other Catholics, affirming that 
by good experience he was so well persuaded of the 
loyalty of divers of his said Catholic subjects, that he 
held himself assured they do as much abhor this detestable 
conspiracy as himself, and would be ready to do their best 
endeavours (though with expense of their blood) to sup- 
press all attempts against his safety and the quiet of his 
State, and to discover whomsoever they should suspect 
to be of rebellious and traitorous disposition, &c. Which 
equanimity of His Majesty distinguishing between the 
guilty and the guiltless, did much edify and content all 
wise and grave men of what religion soever, who cannot 
but greatly detest and condemn the attempt, under what 
pretence, cause or intention soever, it were conceived. 

And as the whole multitude of Catholics were free from 
all consent or knowledge thereof, and could not in justice 
be touched therewith, so much less the religion which they 
profess, which in her doctrine doth no ways allow or avow 
any such attempt, whatsoever the enemies thereof, and 
namely the Puritans, may persuade His Majesty to the 
contrary; as it appeared they began not long after to 
labour His Highness upon this occasion, to be so conceited 
of Catholics (if they were perfect Catholics indeed) and 
so much more of their religion ; seeming to think it more 
likely in them that were better grounded and more exact 
professors of the same religion. To which effect were His 
Majesty's words in his public speech in the Parliament 
House not long after, in the hearing of all the Puritans, 1 

1 Who had much laboured to possess the King with that opinion as being 
most for their advantage. Erased in Orig. 



1 1 6 A Narrative of 

seeming desirous to give contentment to all parties. For 
first after all the conspirators had been thoroughly tried 
and examined in the Tower (as I have declared), and that 
it was now apparent by all the success of the matter, and 
by all their examinations, that not only the multitude of 
Catholics were clear, but also that there were no more 
to be touched than were already discovered, insomuch 
that the general voice and opinion of all men was changed, 
as is said before, then did His Majesty in his public speech 
confirm again his good opinion of his Catholic subjects 
in that behalf ; but withal seemed to believe the Puritans 
further in their malicious reports of us and our minds, than 
upon due trial His Majesty will find to be true. For in 
the said speech after he had first given due thanks to God 
for his happy delivery from so great a danger, then he 
declared whom he took to be the practisers and plotters 
of this treason, and seeming to point as it were to the 
conspirators already discovered, those he showed to be 
men unto which he had not given any cause of disgust. 
"If, (saith he) these conspirators had only been bankrupt 
persons, or discontented upon occasion of any disgrace 
done unto them, this might have seemed to be but a work 
of revenge. But for my own part, as I scarcely ever knew 
any of them, so cannot they allege so much as a pretended 
cause of grief. 1 And the wretch himself in hands doth 
confess that there was no cause moving him or them 
but merely and only religion." Where by the way we 
may observe both out of the reason which His Majesty 
allegeth, and out of their own protestations, wherein they 
all agreed, that no particular grudge or respect to them- 
selves was their motive to this action, but their zeal to the 
common cause, though not " secundum scientiam." 

Then His Majesty proceedeth in his speech, admiring 

1 By which we may gather that their grief and motives were chiefly for the 
common cause, as was gathered before out of their own words and protestations. 
Erased in Orig. 



the Gtmpowder Plot. 1 1 7 

"that Christian men and Englishmen, and one of them 
his sworn servant in an honourable place, should enter into 
such a practice, wherein, saith he, their following obstinacy 
is so joined to their former malice, as the fellow himself 
that is in hand cannot be moved to discover any signs 
or notes of repentance, except only that he doth not yet 
stand to avow that he repents for not being able to perform 
his intent." A great testimony being spoken by the King 
himself, both of the man's great courage, which could not 
be brought down with so great torments as he had then 
sustained, and besides of the great opinion he had in his 
deceived conscience that the thing was lawful, sith he 
would not even then repent that he had intended it, but 
only seemed no more to desire the thing itself, which he 
might also see God would not have go forward. And 
truly this testimony of His Majesty's words doth make 
me the rather to believe that of him which was reported 
by divers of credit, to w T it, that at his apprehension he had 
a shirt of hair found upon his back when he was first 
searched. 

It followeth then in the King's speech (after the rehear- 
sing more at large the wonderful manner of his deliverance 
by his strange interpretation of the letter, as I set down 
before), then he cometh to declare that he doth not con- 
demn his other Catholic subjects for the fault of those few, 
and laboureth to restrain the Puritans from that conceit ; 
whereby it appears they had laboured also to put that 
opinion into His Majesty's head and heart against all 
Catholics, if his wisdom and upright judgment had not been 
the greater. " It resteth now (saith he) that I should shortly 
inform you what is to be done hereafter upon the occasion 
of this horrible and strange accident. As for your part that 

The Puritans so ready are m y faithful and loving Subjects of all 

to execute severity upon i T i .-, . ■, . 

aii catholics that they degrees, I know that your hearts are so 

were restrained by the .. ........ 

King. burnt up with zeal in this errant, and your 

tongues so ready to utter your dutiful affections, and your 



ri8 A Narrative of 

hands and feet so bent to concur in the execution thereof 
(for which, as I need not to spur you, so can I not but praise 
you for the same), as it may very well be possible that the 
zeal of your hearts shall make some of you in your speeches 
rashly to blame such as may be innocent of this attempt ; 
but upon the other part I wish you to consider, that I would 
be sorry that any being innocent of this practice, either 
domestical or foreign, should receive blame or harm for the 
same. For although it cannot be denied, that it was the only 
blind superstition of their errors in religion that led them 
to this desperate device ; yet doth it not follow that all 
professing that Romish religion were guilty of the same. 
For as it is true that no other sect of heretics, not excepting 
Turk, Jew, nor Pagan, no not even those of Calicut (who 
adore the devil), did ever maintain by the grounds of their 
religion that it was lawful or rather meritorious, as the 
Romish Catholic call it, to murder Princes or people, for 
quarrel of religion, &c. ; yet it is true on the other side, that 
many honest men blinded peradventure with some opinions 
of Popery (as if they be not sound in the questions of the 
Real Presence, or in the number of the Sacraments, or some 
such School question), yet do they either not know, or at 
least not believe all the true grounds of Popery, w r hich is 
indeed the Mystery of Iniquity. And therefore do we 
justly confess that many Papists, especially our forefathers, 
laying their only trust upon Christ His merits at their 
last breath, may be and oftentimes are saved ; detesting 
in that point and thinking the cruelty of Puritans worthy 
of fire, that will admit no salvation to any Papist. I 
therefore thus do conclude this point, that as upon the 
one part many honest men seduced with some errors of 
Popery may yet remain good and faithful subjects ; so 
upon the other part, none of those that truly know and 
believe the whole grounds and School conclusions of their 
doctrine, can ever prove either good Christians or good 
subjects," &c. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 1 1 9 

The first chief point of TlieSC be tll£ W01 * ds ° f HiS MajeSt/s 

the Kmgs speech. S p ee ch in Parliament, 1 wherein we may- 
observe two things. First, that the Puritans had laboured 
and in some sort prevailed with His Majesty to make him 
believe, that it is holden by the doctrine of Catholics lawful 
to kill and murder Princes, &c, wherein that they might the 
better persuade and work His Highness' mind to their 
opinion, or rather his opinion to their desire, they did set 
forth two pestilent books full of subtle falsehood, one of the 
which I had occasion before to write of, which was directed 
to that unlawful end to prove all Catholics traitors by 
the laws of the realm. The other was yet a more impu- 
dent and malicious book, entitled The Popish Positions, 
wherein by a number of Canons and sayings of Popes 
and Doctors, falsely alleged and sophistically inferred, the 
Puritans labour to prove that it is by the Catholic doctrine 
holden and approved for lawful to kill and murder Princes, 
&c, and therefore not possible they should be good 
subjects but traitors, and so to be esteemed and used. In 
which case I leave it to the reader's judgment what was the 
mark they shot at But I may not leave him in that error 
(if by chance he be one that know not our opinions) that 
we either hold or teach so erroneous and wicked doctrine, 
as they would infer out of many places which themselves 
understand not, and others which they falsely allege. I 
will not stand to answer any particular of the book, which 
is not for this place, and shall be no doubt much better 
and more at large performed by others. But this I desire 
the reader to remember, that out of this very story, wherein 
yet there is a sorer proof against us in this point, so far 
as concerneth the only practice of a few, than can be 
equalled in the examples of many ages ; yet doth it plainly 
appear that Catholics do hold and teach the very contrary, 
as if it please him to turn back unto the answer which 
Father Garnett gave unto Mr. Catesby in questions of the 

1 Concerning his opinion of his Catholic subjects. Erased in Orig. 



120 A Narrative of 

like kind but of far less moment, he shall plainly see. For 
although he was not demanded any such barbarous question 
as whether it were lawful to murder Kings (unto which his 
answer would have been quick and sharp no doubt, as 
becometh a Religious man, whose ears must be hedged 
about with thorns against any such traitorous tongues), 
but the demand being only this : " For whom it was lawful 
to make war and how far to proceed therein," he showed 
that no war was lawful without authority, nor any authority 
able to give leave but from those that had the government 
of the commonwealth. His answer therefore was much 
contrary to this malicious inference of his untrue reporting 
enemies, although he then spoke unto a confident friend, 
where he feared no rehearsal of the matter ; and to one 
also that he feared to be too forward in those causes, and 
therefore if he had been desirous to set him more forward 
in that mind, and had been of that opinion himself, or 
that opinion true and lawful to be practised, which our 
enemies slander us withal, surely he would then have 
delivered his mind plainly to that effect. But. the truth 
is so far on the contrary side, that all Catholics received 
strict commandment from the See Apostolic, that in no case 
they should stir or attempt anything against His Majesty 
or the State, and this both from Pope Clement VIII. 
of pious memory, and from Paulus Vtus. that now sitteth 
in the Chair, who both before and since his assumption 
to that supreme dignity of governing the Church of Christ, 
hath showed himself most earnest to procure the quiet, 
safety, and security of our Sovereign, both by liking and 
allowing of the leagues that other Catholic Princes have 
made with him, as also by often intimation and signi- 
fication into England both by letters and message, that 
no Catholic people should go about to interrupt or 
trouble the same by their impatient proceedings. This 
likewise was the commandment sent from the General 
of the Society and Father Persons to Father Garnett, as 



the Gunpowder Plot. 121 

hath been showed before. This was also Father Garnett 
his practice and earnest endeavour, as may plainly be seen 
in his own letters before set down ; and may be seen also 
in the proof and sequel of this business, sith it may plainly 
appear he prevailed much with all the best sort of Catholics 
in England, as his letters do also import that he hoped 
he should, whereas these conspirators rising in arms, and 
with protestation that they rise only for cause of religion, 
unto the which they were well known to be fervently 
addicted, and no light-headed or hare-brained persons, but 
men known to be full of valour and of wit, and esteemed 
also before this action by all that knew them well, to be 
full of virtue. Yea, although divers of them Avere much 
befriended and allied in those countries where they took 
arms, and the countries also very well stored with many 
Catholics of worth, yet for all this, so far had Father 
Garnett prevailed with them, or rather the commandment 
of His Holiness delivered by him, that none would or did 
come to help them, or offer to stand for the cause in that 
kind or course of forcible attempt. No, neither friends to 
their persons nor friends to their religion would either 
by themselves or their forces give them any help at all. 
And yet they sought it earnestly, insomuch that they sent 
Mr. Thomas Winter to one Catholic gentleman of a noble 
house and great account, and whose daughter also his 
brother, Mr. Robert Winter, had married, and yet this 
gentleman being a known and constant Catholic, and a 
man otherwise very stout and withal of great power in 
those parts, he was so far from helping or assisting them 
in any sort, that he would not so much as hear Mr. Winter 
speak, but caused his gates to be shut against him. And 
yet the said noble gentleman was afterwards in great 
trouble and had like to have lost all his estate, which is 
very great, upon presumption that he did bear some good 
will unto them. So that hereby it is most apparent, how 
contrary the doctrine and practice also both of Superiors 



122 A Narrative of 

and subjects in Catholic religion is from that which the 
Puritans did labour by their books to persuade, and it 
seems His Majesty was in part wrought to believe. 

But whatsoever the Catholics do herein, it is well known 
that the Puritans do both hold it for sound doctrine, and are 
not ashamed to teach it as lawful and necessary, and to 
practise it also (not as these few Catholics did, out of their 
own opinion ill-applied, and blamed for it by all of their 
own side), but as proceeding out of their doctrine, yea 
and warranted by the same, or rather urged upon the 
people by the preachers of the said doctrine, for which 
they say they bring the Word in great plenty. . 

I will not here cite Luther and Calvin, who are very 
copious in this kind, and will be fittest for those to bring 
that answer the foresaid books. It sufficeth here to consider 
our home examples and that of the chief apostles and 
pillars of the religion now professed under His Majesty's 
name and authority in Scotland, to wit, John Knox,. the 
first broacher and preacher thereof, and Buchanan's chief 
assistant therein, and master also and bringer up of His 
Knokes-^/. foi. 28. Majesty's person. Both which in their 
Pfhe^chu^h^scoi. public writings do not only place the 

la?id, pp. 1807, 3702; and . . . 

to England and Scot- restraint, coaction, punishment, arraign- 

land, f. 77 and 78. 

Buchan. u. de jure ment, condemnation, deposition, yea and 

Regm, pp. 13, 23, 40, 58, 

6l > 7 °- execution also of Princes in the people's 

hands when they govern not well (according to their judg- 
ment), but further also do wish that public rewards should 
be appointed by the same people for such as kill tyrants, 
as commonly there are, say they, for those that kill wolves 
or bears or take their whelps. So they. Whereunto if we 
add these authors' own inference in the same places here 
quoted, which is, that when the people are negligent in 
punishing evil Princes, their particular ministers may cite 
them ; yea, and by excommunication cast them into hell, 
and make them unworthy to enjoy life upon earth, as 
their own words are. By this doctrine, and by their 



the Gunpowder Plot. 123 

practice according to the same (whereof His Majesty is 
best able to bear witness out of his own trial), the reader 
may judge how different the state of Princes' safety is 
under the one and the other doctrine and discipline, and 
from the one and the other sort of subjects. And by this 
I leave him to discern whether the Catholics or the 
Puritans deserve better to be compared with Turk, Jew, or 
Pagan, or the inhabitants of Calicut, in respect of cruelty 
or disobedience growing out of their doctrine. 

And surely His Majesty was not ignorant of the mind 
and doctrine and manner of proceeding of the Puritans in. 
this point ; but out of his wisdom, he thought it best rather 
to please them for the time in seeming to believe what they 
had written of us than to rehearse their own doctrine, 
whereof he had tasted too much, knowing right well that 
their patience was not able to bear to be rubbed upon the 
back, which indeed was much galled in that kind of 
doctrine about government So that herein we may think it 
pleased His Highness to practise 1 that in this his grave 
and princely speech in the Parliament House, which some- 
times before he had used to say in mirth, when he would 
show the difference between the Papists and Puritans, in 
matter of patient sufferance. For His Majesty would often 
affirm that he had in his realm two asses, an old ass and a 
young ass. The old ass, which was the Papist, would 
willingly and patiently bear what loads soever he laid upon 
his back ; but the young ass, which was the Puritan, was 
so unruly, that if he laid the least burden upon his back, 
he would never leave wincing and flinging until he had 
gotten it off, and perhaps would do much harm in the 
meantime with his heels. And we must for this time bear 
with so much the more patience this imputation as a 
punishment for the ill desert of these few gentlemen, 
although it be most apparent that our doctrine and our 

1 Upon this occasion of the disobedience in these few gentlemen. Erased 



124 A Narrative of 

general practice deserve much the contrary, which also 
His Majesty in the same speech doth seem to allow as 
true in the minds and manners of most of his Catholic 
subjects ; and in that regard doth wisely and graciously 
restrain the too great forwardness and fury of the Puritans, 
which, he saith, he counteth worthy of fire, allowing the 
Catholics neither for saved souls in Heaven, nor good 
subjects in earth. 
,™ ,,.,,* But yet whereas His Majesty doth 

Ihe second chief point ■' •> J 

of the Kings's speech, distinguish between the learned and 
unlearned Papists, and seemeth to think those which 
know the less, and believe and follow the fewer of our 
grounds and points of doctrine, to be the better sort 
of Catholics, and more likely to be the better subjects 
and more obedient both to God in Heaven and to their 
Kings and Princes on earth : this is the second point 
I touched before, which I must grant I do not well under- 
stand. For being granted that some of our religion 
be good, and God's servants, and go to heaven, I do not 
see how it is possible that those who know and practise 
more of that with which the others were good, can thereby 
become the worse. 

For as it is most assured, that none can have grace in 

Heb. ii. this life, nor glory in the next without faith — " sine 
qua impossible est placere Deo :" 1 so no faith but the true 
faith which Christ delivered to His Church, and the Apostles 
planted in His Church, can be this necessary foundation 
to this good estate of a soul either in grace or glory. 

i cor. 3 . " Fundamentum enim aliud nemo potest ponere 
praeter id quod positum est." 2 Therefore these simpler 
Catholics being saved must needs both have had faith, 
and that the true faith of Christ. Now I suppose the true 
faith of Christ can teach none to be disloyal. Again this 

1 " Without faith, it is impossible to please God " (Hebr. xi. 6). 

2 "For other foundation no man can lay but that which is laid" 
(1 Cor. iii. 11). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 125 

faith of Christ, being but one (as there is but one Lord and 
Ephes.4. one baptism), cannot be divided, or in part believed 
and followed and in part refused, " quam nisi quisque fide- 
liter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non poterit, eamque 
nisi quis integram inviolatamque servaverit, absque dubio in 
aeternum peribit." 1 So that the most simple Catholics both 
do and must believe and profess the same faith in all points 
which the learned do, although they are not bound explicite 
to know all particulars more than the articles of their 
Creed and the Sacraments and other needful helps to 
salvation which they are to use ; for the rest it sufficeth 
they believe the Church in all things as being " Columna 
et firmamentum veritatis," 2 and the same also one article 
of their Creed, which all are bound both to believe and 
know; and so consequently the simpler sort believe 
implicitc and virtually all that is generally taught and 
believed by School Doctors for matter of faith : and so 
their faith and the grounds of their faith being all one, 
can work no different effect. And if there should be any 
difference, methinks the better lot should not light to the 
share of the more simple, for then it would be good to 
be unskilful in the law and in the grounds of faith, contrary 
to that which God saith by His Prophet, " Conticuit 
Osee 4 . populus meus, eo quod non habuerit scientiam : 
quia tu scientiam repulisti, repellam et ego," 3 &c. And this 
was the ordinary cavil against us in the late alteration 
of religion (though unjustly imposed), as though we had 
willingly kept the people in ignorance, and therefore would 
not permit them the Scriptures in English. But as reason 
did then, so since experience hath proved that was not the 
cause ; but as nurses that feed . their children, as St. Paul 

1 " Which unless every one shall believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be 
saved : and unless a man shall keep it whole and inviolate, without doubt he 
will perish for ever." 

2 " The pillar and ground of the truth " (i Tim. iii. 15). 

3 " My people have been silent because they had no knowledge ; because 
thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee " (Osee iv. 6). 



126 A Narrative of 

did his, first with milk and then with solid meat, so we. 
And this to prevent their danger, which since we see 
hath followed, that rule being neglected under pretence, 
forsooth, of remedying the ignorance which Papists were 
kept in. But if then the case of the ignorant had been 
the better, we had the more wrong to be blamed for doing 
the best. Finally, this faith which may and often hath saved 
some of the ignorant Papists ; as it is but one, and must 
be entirely believed and professed, so it is also holy, as 
being the faith of Christ (as before I proved), and the 
foundation of that Church which is " una et sancta," &c. : 
and being holy it cannot follow that the greater measure 
should hurt, where the less doth ^ood ; for as we see, if a 
little fire give warmth, a greater will give a greater heat, and 
the sun which giveth light being under a cloud, will shine 
more brightly when it is fully seen : so that the more 
virtue is in the agent, and the more the same is applied, 
the more is the same effect brought forth in the patient, 
unless it be "propter debilitatem organi," as in our eye 
against the light of the sun when we gaze upon it, which 
defect is not in our soul, the same being made for God Him- 
self as for the final end of man, and therefore capable still 
of more and more increase of grace, as we see in the 
Apostles, &c. ; and as God saith by His Prophet, " Dilata 
Ps. 80. os tuum et implebo illud." 1 Therefore it must needs 
follow that the more and more perfectly and exactly the 
rules and grounds of this holy faith are known, the more 
holy it doth make the knowers and believers and followers 
of the same. Neither can it possibly be otherwise ; for as 
our Lord Himself saith, "Non potest arbor bona fructus 
malos facere." 

Well may it happen, and doth often (as His Majesty 
did wisely and truly note), that "particular men of all 
professions and religions have been, some thieves, some 
murderers, some traitors," &c, but this then is contrary 

1 " Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it " (Ps. lxxx. 11). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 127 

to their doctrine, if their doctrine be that good Tree 
of which our Saviour speaketh, and which He planted 
in His Church. For that being " Arbor bona non 
potest malos fructus facere," where Ave must understand, 
" quatenus talis arbor." The best tree that is hath some 
fruit that doth miscarry. Some are blasted in the bud, 
some shaken off with the wind, some pecked with birds, 
some with one mischance and some with another miscarrieth 
before it come to ripeness or perfection ; but by these we 
never measure the goodness of the tree. But if we see 
an apple or apricock hang upon the tree of perfect colour, 
of just bigness and shape, so that we may see it is come 
to that perfection which the tree can naturally bring it 
unto, then according to the taste of the fruit, we judge 
the croodness of the tree. If then the fruit be sour, we 
call the tree a crab-tree ; if bitter, so we also term the 
tree and say it is nought ; and justly, being warranted 
by Him that made them, " Quia non potest arbor bona 
fructus malos facere, nee arbor mala fructus bonos facere." 1 
So that here is the difference : an evil tree cannot bring 
forth good fruit, that is, neither grace nor glory can grow 
into a man's soul out of evil doctrine, and so that soul 
not possible to be saved, unless his branch be cut from 
his own root and grafted into the stock of the good tree 
to receive the juice and sap of the same, as St. Paul 
saith we Gentiles were into the trunk of the Jews' fruitful 
olive. On the contrary part, a good tree may have some 
miscarry, but then it is not long of the tree, but of 
other mischances. And so the Catholic doctrine being 
holy, and in this very point of obedience holy, as teaching 
Lmh. tomo 6. th^ a ^ subjects are bound to obey, not 
amco. as L u t.ri er teacheth, for policy only, making all 
men equal and to have no superior but Christ; nor as 
I showed before out of Knox and Buchanan ; but as 

1 " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring 
forth good fruit" (St. Matt. vii. 18). 



128 A Narrative of 

the truth is, and as St. Paul teacheth, that there is dis- 
tinction of degrees and the subjects bound to obey, and 
that not ad libitum, or outwardly only, "ad oculum ser- 
vientes," 1 but in conscience and of necessity, " et tanquam 
Domino," and as to our Lord Himself, to Whom we serve 
in obeying our superiors according to His commandment. 
This is the doctrine of the Holy Catholic Faith in this point, 
wherein although some may miscarry and take wrong 
courses, as these few of late did, following their own conceits 
and desires against the direction and wills of those who 
delivered the contrary doctrine (as hath been declared), yet 
this is no impeachment to the Tree, nor to the rest of the 
fruit. This act of theirs cannot be laid upon the doctrine 
which is holy and bringeth forth no disobedient fruit, 
but the contrary in great measure, and that so much the 
more in those that know more and are the more perfect 
in the grounds thereof, as being the fruit which this 
" Arbor bona " hath brought to best perfection. 

And this clearness and innocency touching this late 
attempt is not only thus apparently proved to be in the 
whole body of Catholics, but was then the general opinion 
of all, the Puritans excepted, who are ever ready to impugn 
"agnitam veritatem." His Majesty, as you have seen, did 
partly affirm it and granted some other part, out of which 
you see it is convinced. 

The prisoners being all at that time often and carefully 
examined, they affirmed constantly and jointly (though 
severally examined) that there were no other conspirators 
than were taken and publicly known. And as for Priests, 
they did both then and at their death protest there was 
none in the action : whereupon His Majesty in the whole 
course of his speech did only lay the fault upon them 
that were discovered, and did seem to excuse the rest, 
as you have heard. So that it was as generally, as justly 



i n 



Not serving to the eye . . . but ... as to the Lord" (Col. iii. 22, 
23 ; Eph. vi. 6). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 129 

believed and voiced through England, that other Catholics 
were all free, and no Priest at all accused or could be 
touched with the treason, which gave no small satisfaction 
both to Catholics and others. And so in right it should 
have continued. But the Puritans did much grieve and envy- 
that those should be free from blame, upon whom they 
rather wished that all might light. And therefore they 
began to practise and work the contrary opinion, first 
in the King, and afterwards in public show unto the 
country, as shall appear in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOW THE FATHERS OF THE SOCIETY WERE BY INDUSTRY 
OF THE HERETICS DRAWN INTO THIS MATTER, TO 
INCENSE THE KING AGAINST THEM, AND FOR THEM 
AGAINST THE CATHOLIC RELIGION. 

The Prophet doth in few words very fully express the 
desires and endeavours of such as are most guided by that 
spirit of pride, who is a professed enemy to God and to all 
Ps. 73- good men. "Superbia eorum (saith he) qui te ode- 
runt, ascendit semper." 1 As if he should say to Almighty 
God, not only the apostate Angel himself doth hate Thee, 
and all those for Thy sake whom he seeth Thee to love ; but 
those also, who are full of his rising and resisting spirit, do 
still raise themselves against Thee and all Thine, but most 
against those whom they see Thee most to favour, or most 
to use and employ in Thy service. " Ascendit semper :" 
their spirit still nghteth against those whom at least they 
think the highest ; although in this man's judgment often 
erreth, guessing by outward signs and not being able to 
search the heart of man, as He doth that is "Scrutator 
cordis et renum," is therefore not able to judge, or their 
judgment to be taken for a certain proof, who be most in 
God's favour. But this their practice was plainly proved 
true in this present matter, whereof we have already treated 
and are as yet further to declare. For although we are to 
presume that His Majesty and the Council did proceed 
without passion in the matter, His Majesty having in many 
parts of his speech showed great equanimity and gracious 
opinion of his faithful Catholic subjects ; yea, although His 

1 " The pride of them that hate Thee ascendeth continually " (Ps. lxxiii. 23). 



A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 131 

Highness did in the same speech correct the malice of 
Puritans against all Catholics in general, and did seek to 
repress their fury, which he saw so ready by word and 
action to oppress all Catholics upon this occasion offered, 
and to persecute the innocent multitude for the fault of a 
few : yet all this would not suffice to quench or assuage 
that fire (as the King did wisely observe and so express it 
in his speech) "with which their hearts were burnt up in this 
errant." But as they had before determined, so they never 
left labouring, until they had wrought their will, and found 
out a device which they hoped would serve both to discredit 
and discourage Catholics ; and beginning with some of the 
chiefest (as they thought), to proceed with better colour 
in punishing and persecuting of the rest. 

Therefore whereas they did know very well how great 
esteem Catholics did generally make of the Fathers of the 
Society, and how much they did all for the most part 
(especially the better sort) rely upon their advice, reputing 
them to be men of great learning and judgment, and chiefly 
to be of approved virtue and spirit and both skill and experi- 
ence in direction of souls : at these Fathers therefore did 
these Puritans resolve to level their first poisoned arrows, 
drawn out of the quiver of malice and shot from the bow of 
open injustice. But you must understand that this is not the 
first time they have aimed at this mark. No ; they have been 
the men upon their eye of envy and spite hath ever been 
fixed since the first coming into England of those two famous 
men, Father Persons and blessed Father Campian, whose 
wisdom and spiritual instructions did so settle the hearts of 
Catholics in profession of their faith and whose exhortations 
both private and public did so kindle the zeal of devotion 
in all their minds, that the heretics might see another face 
of things in the persecuted state of the English Church, 
unto which afterwards being added the frequent and learned 
books of the one, and the challenged and performed dispu- 
tation of the other (with all which they were convinced and 



132 A Narrative of 

confounded), these were motives sufficient to set malice on 
fire against them, and their Society for their sake, although 
they had found no like causes in their followers. But when 
they saw the like course to be continued ; of exemplary 
virtue in Father Edmonds, 1 of wise direction for progress in 
devotion in blessed Father Garnett, and of learned and 
spiritual books in blessed Father Southwell ; also when 
they had tried the constancy of blessed Father Walpole 
and others to be inflexible and not to be drawn either by 
force or favour to their will, either against God's honour 
or the good of their neighbours ; when they found that no 
one of the Society that were sent into England could ever 
be wrought by them neither by torments to yield in 
infirmity, nor yet by their subtle examinations to be over- 
reached so far, no not so much as out of simplicity to accuse 
the least Catholic of his acquaintance, or so that any did 
come in trouble by any undiscreet answer of theirs. 

This long and sufficient trial hath made them so much 
malign the men of that Society, that they have never ceased 
labouring by one means or other to practise all hostility 
against them, as against their chief enemies. From hence 
hath proceeded the many slanders they have sought to 
publish of them : from hence the many false and foul 
reports in several kinds, which they by themselves have 
published in books and procured the like to be done by all 
others whom they could work unto their will, as namely 
those of Mr. Watson's writing, which he so much repented 
at his death, asking humble pardon both of God and of the 
Society for the many falsehoods and slanders fathered 
upon them in the same. From hence also did proceed the 
disobedience of some scholars against the Fathers in the 
Seminaries, secretly wrought in their minds by some 
instruments which the chief of these Puritans had employed 
to that end and purpose. Finally, from hence as from a 
troubled fountain have flowed all the streams of disgraces 

1 Father William Weston was known by this name. — Ed. 



the Gunpozvder Plot. 133 

and disturbance and persecutions both against the Fathers 
themselves, and against the places where they have been 
presumed to be ; yea, against all those who have been con- 
ceived to be favourers or well-willers to them : insomuch 
that in hatred of the Fathers, they would often show favour 
to the places where other Priests were taken. But if the 
Priest were a Jesuit, or but a friend of theirs, and one that 
were known to love them and to follow some of their 
spiritual courses, of which number I acknowledge myself to 
be ; then should they and their receivers be sure to drink 
of the whip and to have sinnmum jus instead of mercy. 
And as they at the first, when Seminary Priests did come in 
apace and did much good, made severe laws against them, 
punishing with pain of death the receivers of them, in all 
which they exempted the old Queen Mary Priests, because 
they saw the others, with their apostolical zeal and fervour, 
to work much greater effect in the minds of men ; so now 
in the practice of those laws, they made a plain distinction 
between all Priests and Jesuits, whom they esteemed the 
greatest enemies to the proceeding and increase of heresy. 
And, but howsoever that is, would to God there were a 
divorce between them and heresy (unto which as yet their 
minds are so much wedded) undoubtedly they should then 
find they had no friends in the world more faithful, nor any 
that would be more ready to serve them in the service of 
God, than those whom now they hate and persecute so 
much, upon a contrary supposed ground, and the same 
most contrary to all truth and justice. 

But their minds being in this manner settled upon their 
courses, and so grounded in opinion of chief resistance in 
the Fathers of the Society and by their means, they 
resolved absolutely by one means or other to effect that 
which they had so much desired and so many ways 
laboured for. And having this opportunity of colour 
offered, of this late attempt of the foresaid gentlemen, and 
knowing the same to be so odious not only to His Majesty 



134 A Narrative of 

and the Council, but in like manner to all the graver and 
better sort of Catholics both in England and elsewhere, 
they did imagine that if they could with any little show of 
pretence but father this matter upon those Fathers, they 
should by that means either have all, or at least some of 
their desires performed against them. For if they could 
not convince them to be guilty, yet because the matter was 
so hateful, they hoped either in the meantime whilst the 
matter were in handling and not fully cleared, to procure that 
they might be called out of England (which hath long time 
been a chief part of their desires) or at least to make many 
Catholics both shy of them and fearful to deal with them ;, 
whilst they by extraordinary and exquisite searching might 
apprehend the most of them. Or at the least, if none of 
these took effect (as thanks be to God, the contrary through 
God's providence was proved true), yet they might here- 
upon ground the pretence of just occasion to enact those 
severe laws against Catholics, which they had determined 
and prepared long before, as I showed in the former chapters. 
Now therefore they began with all diligence to seek out 
likely pretences for their purpose : and it was no hard 
matter to find a staff to beat these dogs prepared by Christ, 
the Chief Shepherd, against the wolves that seek to devour 
His flock. For although they could not find in all the 
several examinations and confessions of the conspirators 
now in prison any little proof that they were in the Plot f 
but the contrary to be averred by them all with solemn 
protestation, yet they would have it suffice for a likelihood, 
that divers of these gentlemen were known unto divers of 
the Fathers and did sometimes come unto them for helps 
in the Sacraments. But so did many hundreds besides 
those gentlemen : and the Fathers dispense faithfully those 
divine mysteries to all, without exception of any, if they 
find them desirous and prepared, and without suspicion of 
any to bear undutiful minds. 1 And if all the acquaintance, 

1 To be lions within when they seem lambs without. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 135 

yea, or the familiar and inward friends unto these gentlemen 
should have been called in suspicion, not only many other 
Catholics in England, who neither are nor can be appeached 
of any such matter, should be convented, but as well, many 
of their own side, even some of those that sat as judges 
of them in the Parliament. Briefly, a bad excuse must 
stand for good, where no better can be found, and where 
the matter is resolved, and the parties condemned, before 
the proof can be found or the witnesses produced. But 
behold one single and he but a seeming witness was found, 
or rather was supposed to be found ; for he also failed 
them, as I shall after declare. 

There was one Bates a servant to Mr. Robert Catesby, 
of whom I made mention before ; and this man having 
been employed by his master in the whole action for pro- 
vision of powder, &c, and seeing himself so far in danger 
as the best, and yet not stored with so much grace and 
generous mind as was needful, nor perhaps entering the 
action with so seeming good motives as those gentlemen, 
who protested they did it merely for service to God and 
exaltation of religion ; which it may be feared was not the 
motive to this fellow, 1 being but a serving-man and never 
of any extraordinary capacity or devotion, but only trusty 
to his master, and belike, in respect of that employed. 
Therefore now when he saw his master gone, and all hopes 
by him failed, it may well be this wind would make his 
house to shake, if it were so built upon the sand ; and 
when he saw likewise the likely storm coming of death 
which he was to expect, and of torments also in likeli- 
hood, if he did not seek to please : these loe were great 
temptations to the poor fellow and sufficient to toss and 
bend that reed which way the wind would blow ; especially 
those fears being seconded with hopes of favour ; which 
were also promised, as shall afterwards appear in his words, 

1 Bates was a very honest and devout man. Orig. in marg. in another 
hand. 



136 A Narrative of 

when he repented his frailty before his death. And so this 1 
fellow being earnestly urged by persons of great authority 
to confess some proofs or likelihood that the Jesuits were 
in this action, the poor man, of frailty and desire of life (as 
afterwards himself affirmed), told them that his master and 
another of those gentlemen had been not past a fortnight 
before the action broke out, at a nobleman's house where 
three Jesuits were, to wit, Father Henry Garnett, Father 
Osmund Tesimond, and Father John Gerard. He affirmed 
also that himself was sent with a letter by his master after 
they were up in arms, to a house in Warwickshire, where 
two of the said Jesuits were, vidlt., Father Garnett and 
Father Tesimond : and that Father Tesimond then went 
with him to his master, who was at Mr. Winter's with the 
rest of the company ; but that the said Father Tesimond 
staid not with them, but rode presently away; yet did 
the poor fellow in his weakness yield so far as to say, 
that he thought Father Tesimond did know of the Plot, 
which yet he affirmed not of the other two. 

This was the ground and the only foundation upon which 
they built that great and slanderous calumniation against 
all the Jesuits in England ; whereas this was no proof 
at all, but only the single conceit of one simple man, and 
that only set down as a mere thought of his own head, and 
but of one of the three. For as for the seeing of them all 
three at my Lord Vaux's, it is certain that was not true. 
For I have inquired of the matter since, and so have found 
it, as I say, to be false ; besides, Father Gerard in his 
letters sent unto the Council in his own purgation, did 
protest he had not seen that Bates of at least a twelve- 
month before, and these letters were so sent, as they were 
received by the Council, whilst Bates was living and in their 
hands. But Bates perhaps might think it true that he was 
there at that time, that being the place which was generally 
supposed to be his chief abode, and so esteemed by the 

1 Poor. Erased in Orig. 






the Gunpowder Plot. 137 

Council themselves, as appeared by the several searches 
had been made there for him, before as well as after this 
false suspicion. Besides if he would be there at any 
time, Bates might think it likely he would not be absent 
at that time, when two aunts of the Lord Vaux that now 
is, were come thither in their return from a long journey, 
who had not been there together of many years before ; 
especially because Bates did suppose that Father Garnett, 
who was the Superior of all the Society in England, 
did continue with those two sisters, and was then come 
with them unto the same house, as Bates did imagine, and 
that Father Tesimond also did meet him there. All which 
might be very likely, if Father Garnett did go along in 
that journey with those devout gentlewomen ; for it might 
well be supposed Father Gerard would not then be missing, 
but would rather be there of purpose to give his Superior 
the best entertainment he could procure, and this, if it 
were so, was cause sufficient, without any thought of the 
other cause of meeting, which I have heard Father Gerard 
himself protest, he did not so much as imagine before 
the thing itself was known to all men. And as for 
Mr. Catesby his being there, he was near cousin both 
unto the same Lord Vaux, and his mother who kept the 
house, and to those two gentlewomen whom he met there 
at that time, as he had done in many other places, both 
before and since this conspiracy was dreamt of. And as 
for Sir Everard Digby, there was more occasion of his 
being there, and there at that time (as I have since 
learned), for that he was a near neighbour and a great 
and tried friend unto the same Lord Vaux and his mother, 
as it was very well known unto divers of the Council, 
and the same also allowed of and well liked by them, with 
whom he had dealt concerning the said Lord and his mother 
about a match that should have been between the Lord 
Chamberlain 1 his daughter and the young Lord Vaux. 

1 Earl of Suffolk. Erased in Ori?. 



138 A Narrative of 

So that Sir Everard Digby had many serious occasions 
to come to my Lord Vaux's ; and then in particular, as I 
have learned since, being come from his ancient house 
and chief living which lay in Rutlandshire, from whence 
he could not go unto the house x where his wife and family 
lay, but he must pass by the door of my Lord Vaux 
his house, which also made him there an ordinary guest. 

So that all this supposal had been nothing if it had 
been true ; and as Bates neither did nor could affirm 
it to be true that the three Jesuits were there, but only 
that the two gentlewomen were there, taking their sister's 
house in their way at their return, and his master also, 
and Sir Everard Digby met them, of which one also came 
merely by chance ; what the other did I know not And 
whereas I say that Bates did not affirm this of the Jesuits, 
no, nor of their only being in the house, so absolutely 
as he did affirm that he afterwards saw Father Garnett 
and Father Tesimond in Warwickshire, shall appear in 
his own words, when I set down his letter, whereof I 
have the true copy. 

But yet this doubtful and uncertain affirmation of 
his, which, if it had been most true and certain, had 
been also certain to be no proof at all or just cause 
of presumption, where there were so many other causes 
concurring which would have required the being of 
Father Gerard in that house at that time (if that were the 
place of his most residence), yet was this no cause made 
cause sufficient of great trouble to that noble family. For 
presently there was commission granted out for a most 
severe search to be made in that house of my Lord Vaux's, 
and also in another house of the said Lord's three miles 
off, lest perhaps Father Gerard might be kept there in 
that troublesome time. The commission was directed 
to the most forward Puritans of the country, with strict 
charge not only to search narrowly for the said Father,. 

1 Of his ordinary abode. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 139 

but whether they found him or not, to keep possession 
of the house and the keys of the rooms, until the Com- 
missioners should have further order from the Council. 
All this and much more was performed in so strict manner 
as might be. For although the Lord Vaux and his mother 
were very much beloved and respected in all the country, 
he being the most ancient Baron and first in place of all 
the shire, and so linked to most houses of worth within 
the shire that it was hard to find any man of account 
therein that was not either akin or allied or a dear friend 
unto their house ; yet all this notwithstanding, the search 
was most severe, as I have been credibly informed by 
those that were present. The house was beset with at 
least a hundred men, and those well appointed. The 
young Lord made no resistance, as having no cause to 
fear, but brought the Commissioners presently in to his 
mother, who delivered unto them all the keys of her 
house, and willed them to use their pleasure. They 
searched for two or three days continually, and searched 
with candles in cellars and several dark corners. They 
searched every cabinet and box in her own closet for 
letters, in hope to find some little scroll that might show 
Father Gerard had been an actor in this treason, or that 
she or her son had received some knowledge of it. But 
they found not with all this diligence the least tittle of 
advantage in the matter, insomuch that the chief man 
in commission for this search (though an earnest Puritan) 
yet sent a very full information unto the Council that he 
had found the house most clear, the young Lord and his 
mother very respective unto authority, admitting any kind 
of search or inquiry that he could desire and yet very 
confident in their own innocency ; and that he found not 
any preparation in the house for war, or any show at all 
that they had the least knowledge of any such attempt 
intended. 

Notwithstanding, this information sent after full trial 



140 A Narrative of 

made by search, the Council sent for the young Lord 
and his mother up to London presently, where they were 
both examined ; the young Lord by my Lord Salisbury 
alone, who cleared himself so by his answer that he was 
no further restrained, but only commanded to stay in the 
city of London. His mother was examined before the 
whole Council, where she did clear herself fully from 
all cause of suspicion in that treason, and affirmed con- 
stantly, that although she were a firm Catholic, and so 
would live and die by the grace of God, yet that fact 
she did as much mislike and condemn as themselves ; 
and that so she had been taught by those that had care 
of her soul. They urged her that she knew Father Gerard, 
and had received him many times into her house. She 
answered she hoped none could justly accuse her that 
she had received either him or any other Priest, and 
that she would not accuse herself, the same being a Penal 
Law. They insisted she was bound to tell of him, for 
that he was known to be a traitor and a chief plotter of 
this action. She answered with serious protestation, that 
she had never the least cause to think so of him (if she 
did know him, as they presupposed) ; and said that she 
had heard so much good of the man (though she did 
not know him) that she would pawn her whole estate, 
yea, and her life also, that he was not guilty of that Plot, 
nor justly to be touched with it. Then the Council pro- 
duced a letter which she had written unto the Sheriff 
of Warwickshire, her cousin, for the delivery of two Priests, 
who were taken passing through the country after the 
stirs were begun, which letter the sheriff had sent unto 
the Council (more like a Puritan as he is, than a kinsman 
as he should be). This letter, said the Lords of the 
Council, being written for the delivery of Strange, the 
Jesuit (now in the Tower, and since very sore tortured, as 
I shall afterwards declare), and for another Priest, one 
of Blackwell the Archpriest his assistants, and the same 



the Gunpowder Plot. 141 

also written in so earnest and- effectual manner, doth 
convince you to be guilty of treason in that Statute of 
aiding Priests. 1 She answered that she wrote for them 
indeed, and that she desired much to set them free, but 
she knew them not to be Priests, but took them for 
Catholic gentlemen that came sometimes to her house 
as others did, and looked nothing; like Priests. Then 
finally, some of the Council said, that whereas she was 
now in the King's mercy to live or die, she should have 
her life and lose nothing of her estate, if she would 
tell where Gerard the Jesuit was to be found. She 
answered, she knew not ; but if she did know she would 
not tell it them to save her life and many lives. "Why 
then," said they, "Lady, you must die." "Why then, I will 
die, my Lords," said she, " for I will never do the other." 
So they sent her away to prison, not to an ordinary gaol, 
but to a rich Alderman's house in London, where she 
was well respected, and yet kept so close that not her 
own son might come to see her, only she had a gentle- 
woman of her own to attend her. There were also divers 
of her servants committed to several prisons, and often 
and strictly examined with many menacings if they would 
not confess Father Gerard to have been at the Lord Vaux 
his house, but nothing could be wrung out of them. The 
house in the country was all this while watched within and 
without for nine or ten days together, that if Father Gerard 
were still in the house hid in any secret place, he either 
might be starved to death, or by famine forced to come 
out. And for two or three miles round about the house 
there was watch kept in the country, and all passengers 
examined in desire to find the said Father, but all in vain ; 
for where God will protect, man's forces or policies are 
frustrate, "et deficient scrutantes scrutinio." 2 

Soon after this search was past, Father Gerard lying 

1 So that you are now in the King's mercy. Erased in Orig. 

2 And searching they will fail in their search. 



142 A Narrative of 

secretly in another country, and understanding how 
that house had been severely searched for him as 
for one of this conspiracy, he thought it fit and 
needful to show his innocency in the matter by a 
public letter, which he performed presently, and I have 
read the letter. It contained, first, some reasons why 
he did seek to clear himself, and that by the way 
of protestation, the matter being true and just and in 
re gravi. Then he did solemnly and seriously protest 
before God and all the Court of Heaven, that he was 
never privy to the matter, nor had heard so much as 
one word of that Plot of Powder before the thing itself 
was discovered and the knowledge thereof brought unto 
him by public fame ; and that his meaning was, he had 
not known of it either in secret or otherwise, no, not so 
much as in confession. Also he did exclude all equivoca- 
tion so far forth, that if he did in any sort equivocate in 
this protestation, he did yield himself as guilty of the whole 
both in the sight of God and men. Further he alleged 
divers reasons why it was not likely he should know thereof, 
as in respect of the badness of the matter, which he utterly 
disliked and condemned, no man more. In respect of 
his estate and the prohibition he had received from his 
Superiors, not to meddle with any State matters at all ; 
and much less with any such outrageous attempt. Also, 
that the Council had tried him sufficiently in those matters 
in the time of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when they had him 
in their hands from three years and more, often labouring 
to have found him guilty, or to have him confess he 
had dealt in State matters ; but he was ever found clear, 
insomuch that they could not produce the least word 
of his writing or witness against him in all that time 
of his imprisonment, nor find him guilty in the least point, 
although they put him to the uttermost trials to see 
whether force or favour would sooner prevail with him. 
Then further in this letter he alleged, that if in Queen 



the Gunpowder Plot, 143 

Elizabeth's time it could not be proved he had meddled 
in any matters of State, much more it was to be presumed 
he would be far from dealing in this highest kind of 
treason, and that against this King, for whom it was well 
known his father had suffered and lost much, whereof it 
pleased His Majesty to take knowledge unto his brother 
at his first coming to the Crown. And lastly, he said 
he was so far from ever consenting or knowing of any 
such matter, that he offered freely, if either before his 
taking or after, 1 it could be proved, that ever he had 
any kind of knowledge of that Plot of Powder, that then 
he would freely give them leave, whensoever it should 
please God to deliver him into their hands, to put him 
to all the torments could be imagined, and pull one 
piece of him from another, and withal that all men of 
what side or sect soever should then repute him as a 
perjured creature, and to have neither faith to God nor 
man. This was the effect of his letter in brief, the letter 
itself containing a sheet or two of paper, which letter 
being published in London, did give great satisfaction 
not only to Catholics (who could not easily believe such 
reports of him before) but even to the Protestants them- 
selves. Yea, it was showed unto the King himself by an 
Earl in great favour with His Majesty, and His Highness 
for that time was very well satisfied therewith. 

But notwithstanding this and the general opinion which 
most men conceived of his innocency, and although there 
were no proof at all or sufficient grounds to proceed against 
any of the rest, yet such was the settled resolution of 
some to bring them into the suspicion and slander of 
this treason, that they proposed it unto His Majesty as 
a thing very requisite, to have a public proclamation sent 
forth against the Jesuits, and first to begin with these 
three, meaning to bring in the rest also by degrees. The 
King referred the matter unto the Council, as his manner 
1 Whensoever it should please God to permit it. Erased in Orig. 



144 A Narrative of 

is. The cause was therefore discussed at the council- 
table, and being proposed by those that were of great 
authority in that place, it was not much gainsaid, at least 
for two of the three. But for the third, which was Father 
Gerard, it was answered by some, that there was no reason 
he should be put in the number ; and one Earl at 
the table, being of great account both for wisdom and 
learning, said that sith Gerard had so fully cleared himself 
by so ample a protestation and was a gentleman, he 
thought it was very hard to lay so severe a punishment 
upon him, upon the single accusation of one witness, 
and he but a base fellow and in fear of his life. For it 
was then supposed that Bates did accuse all these three, 
and perhaps so proposed also to make the matter seem 
more justly grounded. But it was not so, as will appear 
in the words of ^Bates his letter hereafter. But neither 
this pious answer, nor truth itself, which I doubt not 
answered for all the three in the conscience of those 
that most furthered this cruel course, could anything at 
all prevail against the course which was before intended, 
insomuch that it was there resolved a proclamation should 
presently be sent forth against those three before named. 
Yea, and Father Gerard was put in the first place, as if he 
had been the principal person of the three, which though 
some do think to have been done only by the penner 
of the proclamation in respect of his blood or kindred 
in the world, which they (looking only with fleshly eyes) 
make more account of than of spiritual dignities ; yet sure 
it was done of purpose, to make him the more odious 
thereby, and to hide the want of proof which they had 
against him : that when all men did see him set before 
the other two, whereof one was his Superior, and the 
other his ancient every way, they might the rather 
think there was some great matter found out against 
him. And so all men might be incensed the more 
to betray him or apprehend him, for that was the chief 



the Gtinpowdei' Plot. 145 

intention of the proclamation against all the three. And 
to that end in the proclamation, first the names of the 
persons and the nature of their supposed offence was 
set down ; then a subtle inducement joined with a serious 
commandment unto all men to discover them and to help 
to apprehend them, unto which also was annexed large 
promises to those that should be found the particular 
instruments of their apprehension ; and lastly, a severe 
protestation that whosoever should presume to be a har- 
bourer, maintainer, or concealer of any of them, or should 
not do their best for their discovery or apprehension, that 
they should hope for no mercy, but that the laws should 
be most severely executed upon them, as upon persons 
no less pernicious than the actors and concealers of the 
main treason itself. In the end of all the three persons 
were described, that they might the better be known, 
by their stature, their colour, and countenance. By all 
which it may appear how violent a desire of their 
apprehension those had who procured the proclamation, 
as the most forcible and likely means to that effect. I 
pray God avert the violence of His justice from their 
souls, and send them to find mercy, when this forcible 
proceeding of theirs doth come to be examined. For 
s?.p. 6. otherwise a dreadful doom must be expected, " quia 
potentes potenter tormenta patientur : horrende et cito 
apparebit eis," 1 saith the wise man. I pray God they 
may prevent it, before it light upon them ; otherwise this 
blow will hurt and wound the strikers much more than 
them against whom it was intended. 2 

1 "Horribly and speedily will He appear to you, for a most severe 
judgment shall be for them. that bear rule" (Wisd. vi. 6). 

2 One thing was observed by many at that time as markable in respect of 
the event, although the foresight were but casual, which was a prediction by 
one of their kind of prophets, one Gresham, a man of special fame amongst 
them for skill in astrology and making of almanacs, with certain predictions of 
events, not only of the weather, but of other accidental matters depending 
of man's free-wall, and therefore far past his skill to divine of. Yet this man, 
in an almanac which he had set forth for that year of 1605, had assigned for 

K 



146 A Narrative of 

This proclamation being published in London, it was 
presently carried into all the market-towns of England 
(as the custom is) to be there proclaimed, to the end 
that all men taking notice of the names and the description 
of the persons of these three supposed traitors, it might 
be unpossible in any short time for any of them to 
pass safely through any town, but that they would be 
descried, discovered, and apprehended. So that they 
were now to be esteemed in all human likelihood, 
"tanquam oves occisionis," like sheep designed to the 
jac. 1. slaughter. " Sed ira viri justitiam Dei non 
operatur;" 1 and whom God will protect "nemo potest 
rapere de manu illius." 2 God provided for them such 
friends as knew their innocency well, and did most willingly 
adventure with them, not regarding the threats nor respect- 
ing the promises in the proclamation of a straw. Yea, 
I know where some of them refused the earnest entreaties 
of some persons of great worth instantly desiring to have 
had them in their houses. But they were well and safely 
provided for, for insomuch that until this day two of 
them were never in danger to fall into their enemies' 
hands, "sed liberati sunt de manu Herodis et de omni 
expectatione plebis Judseorum." 3 And the third was 
provided for sufficiently in a house of great safety, and 
where he might have continued long enough without 

every particular day some special event of things that should then happen. 
Amongst the rest, the mark which was set upon the day of the date of this 
proclamation, and in which it was published in London, was this, "Might 
against right ; " which, seeing it was prepared and printed before the procla- 
mation was thought of, it gave many cause to think that the pen of this man 
was guided by a better foresight than his own, and directed to set down the 
truth by the same power that could make the beast that Balaam rode upon to 
Num. 22, 24. reprehend his master, and afterwards caused that covetous 
Prophet to bless the people of God and to foretell the truth, much against 
his own inclination and the intention of his coming. Erased in Orig. 

1 " For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God " (St. James i. 20). 

2 "No one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father" (St. John 
i. 29). 

3 They are "delivered out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expecta- 
tion of the people of the Jews " (Acts xii. n). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 147 

danger, if he had not been by God's permission betrayed 
into their hands as his Master was ; " sed advenerat hora 
ejus." 1 And he that betrayed him for "Quid vultis mihi 
dare?" 2 had a halter for his pains, as Judas had, though 
he died not desperate, as Judas did, but very penitent 
for his fact, as the sequent chapters shall declare. 

1 But his hour was come. 

2 "What will you give me?" (St. Matt. xxvi. 15). 



CHAPTER X. 

HOW FATHER GARNETT, THE SUPERIOR, WAS DIS- 
COVERED AND TAKEN IN WORCESTERSHIRE AND 
BROUGHT UP TO LONDON : AND OF HIS FIRST 
ENTREATY AND EXAMINATION. 

WHEN all England was filled with this new rumour by 
means of this proclamation, that now the Jesuits were 
also found to be in the Plot of Powder, and especially 
those three, who therefore were named and described 
and publicly proclaimed, though Catholics did generally 
believe the contrary of them, many being witnesses of their 
innocency, and of their often and earnest persuasions to 
peace and quietness, and to patience in this time of 
persecution. And though many wise men did say in 
their hearts, "Guam accusationem affertis adversus homines 
istos P" 1 because they saw them traduced by the proclama- 
tion in general words as heinous traitors and contrivers 
of the whole Plot, and as men so proved to be by the 
several examinations of the prisoners in the Tower. But 
when they looked for these proofs in the examinations, 
even those which were chosen out amongst the rest to 
be published in print, as the chiefest and most fit for 
the full discovery of the whole Plot and the plotters 
of the same ; and finding there no one word of any of 
them, but the contrary, in that the whole course of the 
matter was there seen to be carried by others there 
mentioned with all particulars of their proceedings. And 
hearing also by many certain reports that the prisoners 
did all protest there was no Priests at all guilty of the 

1 "What accusation bring you against " these men? (St. John xviii. 29). 



A Narrative of the Gtmpowder Plot. 149 

conspiracy, or that did any ways assist them therein : 
these and the like reasons did make the wiser and more 
reasonable sort, even of Protestants themselves, to think, 
as the truth was, "quod ex invidia tradidissent eos." 1 

But this was no impediment to the forcible authority of 
the proclamation, which went out under the King's name. 
And instead of particular accusations, it must suffice for 
the present, " quod si non essent hi malefactores, non 
tradidisset eos potestas regia;" 2 and indeed other proofs 
they could have none at all against all the three neither 
then nor since, although against two of them, to wit, 
against Fathers Garnett and Tesimond, 3 they framed after- 
words some pretended matter in particular, much like to 
that whereof their Master was accused, " quod subverteret 
gentem et prohiberet tributum dari Csesari :" 4 " Sed sufficit 
discipulis ut sint sicut Magister eorum." 5 In the meantime 
Father Garnett thought best to retire himself to a house 
of great safety near unto the place where then he was, 
and there meant to lie private till the heat of this 
persecution were passed, and that it might be more safe 
travelling towards London where he meant to settle as 
he had been accustomed. The house was called Henlip, 
two miles distant from the city of Worcester, and so 
large and fair a house that it might be seen over great 
part of the country ; and indeed it was so fair and 
commodious a house that it had often caused the owner 
of it much trouble, being an eyesore unto some Puritans 
of great wealth that were neighbours, within some miles, 
and nothing so well seated ; who therefore procured often 
warrants to search that house in hope to find some Priest 



1 " For envy they had delivered " them (St. Matt, xxvii. 18). 

2 If they were not malefactors, the royal power would not have delivered 
them up. 

3 Greenway. Erased hi Orig. 

4 ' ' Perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar " 
(St. Luke xxiii. 2). 

5 " It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master " (St. Matt. x. 25). 



150 A Narrative of 

there, for which the house and the whole estate of the 
gentleman might be forfeited to the King, and so begged 
by them that were the causers and actors of such appre- 
hension. But this being often essayed was never permitted 
by God until this time, " quae erat hora illorum et potestas 
tenebrarum." 1 

The proclamation being published containing, besides 
other persuasions, large promises to any that would 
be discoverers of any of the three ; it happened that 
there was a gentleman called Humphrey Littleton, 
then fallen into trouble for receiving and concealing Mr. 
Robert Winter, one of the principal conspirators, and 
Mr. Stephen Littleton, his kinsman, who had joined him- 
self unto the conspirators in rebellion. These two having 
escaped from this Stephen Littleton his house, where the 
rest of the conspirators were, some slain and some taken 
(as before hath been declared), and having escaped taking 
a month and more in several places where they lay hid, 
did finally come to this Humphrey Littleton for harbour : 
and he received them into his kinswoman's house, where 
he then lay, and kept them in his own chamber, where 
they were discovered and apprehended. 2 Humphrey Little- 
ton therefore being in danger of his life for having 
harboured them, and seeing so large promises of favour 
and rewards to those that would discover any of the three, 
thought to save himself from a temporal punishment by 
doing that which deserved an eternal pain, and sent up 
word unto the Council, that he had been not long before at 
Mr. Abington his house, called Henlip, before mentioned, 
where he heard a Jesuit preach called Ouldcorne, who did 
there reside for the most part, and where he thought also 
Garnett was to be found. 

Upon this information a warrant was presently des- 



1 Which was their, "hour and the power of darkness" (St. Luke xxii. 53). 

2 If this be particularly set down in the former chapter, it may be here left 
out. Orig. in marg. in another hand. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 151 

patched into the country to Sir Henry Bromley, a 
Knight, who was the next Justice of account unto 
Mr. Abington's house, and who was best experienced 
in searching of that house, which he had often performed 
before upon less likelihood of speeding than now he carried 
with him by means of this discovery, and the extraordinary 
authority he had to use his pleasure. He came therefore 
to the house on a Sunday morning very early, accompanied 
with above a hundred men with him, armed and furnished 
all "cum gladiis et fustibus" 1 and with guns, and all kind 
of weapons, more fit for an army than an orderly search. 
And beginning to beat at the gate with great importunity 
to be let in presently, the Catholics within the house 
soon perceiving their intention, made all the haste possible 
to hide both the Priests and Church stuff, and books, 
and all such persons and things as belonged to the Priests, 
or might give cause of suspicion. In the meantime sending 
to the gates, as the custom is, to know the cause of their 
coming, and to keep them in talk with messages to and 
fro, from the master or mistress of the house, all to gain 
time, whilst they within were hiding all things in the 
most safe secret places they had. 

But Sir Henry Bromley, impatient of this delay, 
caused the gates with great violence and force of men 
to be broken down, which yet he could not perform in 
so short a time (by reason they were very strong and 
answerable to the greatness of the house) before they 
within had made all safe which they would hide from 
this violent invasion. The Knight being entered by force, 
sent presently some principal persons with men enough 
to assist each of them into all the several parts of the 
house, as well to take possession of the same, as to make 
stay of any persons that were suspicious, and to be sure 
that nothing should then be hidden after his entry. 
Himself showed unto the mistress of the house (Mr. 

1 "With swords and clubs" (St. Matt. xxvi. 47). 



152 A Narrative of 

Abington himself being not then at home) his large com- 
mission to search, and the proclamation against those 
for whom he would search. She yielded to his authority, 
and gave him full power to do his will. He began 
after the accustomed manner, to go through all the rooms 
of the house, which were many and very large ; he had 
with him Argus his eyes, many watchful and subtle com- 
panions, that would spy out the least advantage or cause 
of suspicion, and yet they searched and sounded every 
corner in that great house till they were all weary, and 
found no likelihood of finding that they came for, though 
they continued the daily search, and that with double 
diligence, all the whole week following. But upon Satur- 
day two laymen that did usually attend upon the two 
Priests, and were hid in a place by themselves, being 
almost starved to death, came out of their own accord. 
For they had placed the Priests in another secret con- 
veyance where there was some provision of victuals laid 
up for their sustenance a few days ; but themselves were 
forced to go into a place on the sudden, which though 
it were safe from finding, yet had no provision at all to 
eat, and, as I have heard, they had but one apple between 
them in all those six or seven days. Whereupon they 
thought it best to come out ; and yet not that so much 
to save themselves from death by famine, as for that they 
perceived the resolution of the searchers to be of staying 
in the house until they had either found or famished those 
whom they knew to be within. Therefore these two 
virtuous men being in hope that upon their taking, the 
searchers would be satisfied and depart (as either thinking 
them to be Priests, or that if there had been any more 
to be found, they would also have been forced to come 
out), this hope made them resolve to offer themselves 
to their enemies' hands, to save the lives of those whom 
they loved better than themselves. And their coming out 
was in such manner as could endanger nothing but them- 



the Gunpowder Plot. 153 

selves : one of the two especially, whose name was Nicholas 
Owen, abounding in discretion, which was the man that 
attended on Father Garnett, and is thought by all men 
to have been a Brother of the Society, of whom we shall 
have occasion to speak afterwards, for he suffered many 
and great torments, and is now a glorious martyr. . 

They therefore perceiving that some of the searchers 
did continually by turns watch and walk up and down 
in the room where they were hidden, which was a long 
and fair gallery four square, going round about the house, 
they watched their time when the searchers were furthest 
off, and came out so secretly and stilly, and shut the 
place again so finely, that they were not one whit heard 
or perceived when or where they came out, and so they 
walked in the gallery towards the door, which they thought 
belike to have found open. But the searchers being turned 
back in their walk, and perceiving two strange men to 
be there, whom they had not seen before, presently ran 
unto them, and asked what they were. They answered 
they were men that were in the house, and would be 
content to depart if it pleased them. The others asked 
whether they were Priests : they answered they were 
Catholics, and that further they would not answer, being 
no doubt desirous to be taken for such, the better to satisfy 
the insatiable mind of those blood-suckers. Then being 
asked where they had been all that while, they answered 
they had hid themselves, being Catholics, to avoid taking. 
And being urged to tell or show the place where, they 
absolutely refused. 

But the searchers knowing well that it must needs 
be in the gallery by all circumstances, began afresh 
to search more violently than ever, and to break down 
the wainscot with which the gallery was lined, and 
the walls also in a number of places. And so they 
continued with all violence for five or six days after, 
and leaving no place untried in so great leisure as they 



154 A Narrative of 

had, it pleased God to end the misery in which they 
kept those two good Fathers by their so long and strait 
inclosure, and to deliver them "in manus quserentium 
animam illorum," 1 by permitting the searchers at last to 
light upon the place itself, where they had been hid so 
many days, "sustentati aqua angustise et pane tribulati- 
onis." 2 For the Fathers were resolved (as since I have been 
informed) there to have ended their days (which could 
not much longer have continued, the uneasiness of the 
room and their slender provision considered) rather than 
by coming out to have endangered their friends in whose 
house they had been so charitably entreated. But it 
was God's will to have their great patience and many 
virtues better known by their public sufferance of violent 
death, than it could have been if they had been in that 
manner privately pined up in a corner. The searchers 
therefore having found and entered the secret place, they 
took out the two Fathers out of their close and painful 
prison, and they seized upon such Church stuff and books 
as were also laid up in the same place, which had made 
the room more strait and uneasy for the Fathers than 
otherwise it would have been. When the Fathers were 
taken, they soon knew who Father Ouldcorne was, because 
he had continued in that country many years and was 
well known and highly respected by most of the Catholics 
in all those parts. 

He had also been often seen by many heretics of the 
country, and was once in their hands before in Queen 
Elizabeth's time, taken on the sudden by some that came to 
search the house, as he was walking with another gentleman 
in the garden. But then out of his ready wit he escaped 
their hands ; for coming with the searchers to the door, 
which went of the parlour into the garden, and finding 
it locked (which it is like the servants had done after they 

1 Into the hands of those that sought their life. 

2 Fed "with bread of affliction and water of distress" (3 Kings xxii. 27). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 155 

perceived the search, because they would have respite 
to pull down the altar and to hide the Church stuff and 
other things of peril), Father Ouldcorne, therefore, finding 
this door shut, called the servants hastily, as if he did 
reprehend them for keeping out the Queen's officers, and 
when they came to open the door he stept in first, as if 
he did continue his speech of finding fault with their 
long stay, and suddenly clapt to the door upon the 
searchers, leaving them shut out and in the garden with the 
other gentleman ; himself presently got into a secret place, 
perhaps the same which now was found, though then they 
could not find neither it nor the man again, though they 
sought him long and with great diligence. And the like 
strange escapes had happened to Father Garnett often, 
though in other manner. 

And so we see, that when God will protect, he can 
hide a Felix between two walls, and make spiders His 
workmen to cover the entry with their webs. And 
again, when it is His pleasure to deliver up His servants 
to their last conflicts, no secret, no hide, no defence 
shall serve ; but He will deliver them like sheep to 
the devouring of wolves, when He hath ordained them 
to so high an honour, as to suffer for His holy name, 
" ut simul compatiantur in hoc sseculo, qui conregnaturi 
sunt in futuro." 1 So it fell out to these two holy men, 
who after they had spent so many years in the gaining 
of souls, labouring both faithfully and fruitfully in God's 
vineyard, so that they might say with the blessed Apostle, 
2 Tim. 4 . " Bonum certamen certavimus, cursum consum- 
mavimus, fidem servavimus :" 2 what was now remaining 
but that they should be called by the just Judge to receive 
" illam coronam justitise quae reposita erat illis," 3 and which 

1 That they may suffer together in this world, who are to reign together 
in the wo rid to come. 

2 We "have fought a good fight," we "have finished the course," we 
"have kept the faith" (2 Tim. iv. 7). 

3 The crown of justice which was laid up for them, and for those also who 
love the coming of Christ. 



156 A Narrative of 

therefore the Apostle doth not only appropriate to himself, 
but " iis etiam qui diligunt adventum Christi," which truly 
was performed by these two in great measure, as both 
in their life and at their death they showed abundantly. 
Thus therefore Father Garnett and Father Ouldcorne 
being taken, and Father Ouldcorne soon known who he 
was, they laboured much to know whether the other were 
Father Garnett or no, and though they brought divers 
unto him to see if they did know him, yet they could 
find none for a good while that could and would discover 
who he was, until at last one poor man was brought, who 
had drunk too much of that cup of contradiction with which 
the craft of heresy hath sought of late to infect the minds 
of some of the weaker sort, thereby to divide, and so to 
destroy the kingdom of faith in our country ; and this 
poor man, I hope rather out of simplicity than malice, took 
knowledge of him, having known him before and been 
beholden to him, and called him both by his own name 
Garnett, and by other names that he had known him to 
go by, by which he was also described in the proclamation. 
And this silly man did utter it with a kind of spleen, 
as seeming to hope that now the Jesuits would bear 
less sway than he thought they had done. It is thought 
he hoped for some favour from the Council for this his 
good service unto them (though a Priest, and then a 
prisoner in Worcester) ; but I cannot hear that he reaped 
any fruit besides a wounded conscience " ex hac delatione 
et accusatione fratris sui;" 1 and Father Garnett's answer 
unto him was with great mildness and charity, according 
to his custom. Sir Henry Bromley now having what he 
desired, presently despatched posts unto the Council with 
this news, and kept the prisoners at his own house in 
the meantime until he might receive further order. 

Unto these foresaid prisoners, Mr. Thomas Abington, 
the master of the house where they were taken, was also 

1 From this delation and accusation of his brother. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 157 

now adjoined, who came home to his own house two days 
after the search began, and was presently apprehended, that 
he might be in safety if any of these supposed traitors 
should chance to be taken in his house : because then by 
the laws he loseth both life and living. Sir Henry Bromley 
soon after receiving order from the Council to bring up 
Father Garnett and Father Ouldcorne with a good guard 
and strength to London, he performed presently their 
commandment, and went towards London attended with 
a great number of horses for the more safe custody of his 
charge. But the more he conversed with Father Garnett, 
the more he grew in estimation of him, and the more 
he showed in all things to respect him, although the man 
be otherwise a very earnest Puritan, and one of the 
forward est that way of all Worcestershire. It happened 
by the way that the Minister who went with Sir Henry 
Bromley as his chaplain or preacher, seeing Father Garnett 
so modest and to speak so little, especially of matters 
of controversy, thought belike that he had been utterly 
unskilful in them, and desirous to get himself some credit 
in that kind, began to provoke Father Garnett to the 
combat ; but Father Garnett, loth to give offence unto 
any, and esteeming the example of modesty more fruitful 
to a proud heretic than to contend with one so likely to 
resist the known truth, did once or twice put him off 
with a mild answer, showing only what the other should 
believe in such a case, and forbearing to allege any further 
reasons. Whereupon the heretic grew more insolent (as 
their custom is), and then began in sort to triumph in 
the hearing of others, which Father Garnett perceiving, 
and then doubting that his good meaning would be so 
easily discerned by his silence as misconstrued, without 
giving further answer to the Minister, he hastened his 
horse a little to overtake Sir Henry Bromley that rode 
before, and told him how his Minister had divers times 
provoked him to disputation, which he had purposely 



158 A Narrative of 

forborne, being loth to give offence unto him in whose 
custody now he was ; and partly also, because he knew 
such disputations to be often fruitless where there is no 
judge of authority to restrain the subdued party from 
entering into terms of blasphemy and such like, which him- 
self was not willing to hear, and therefore thought it better 
in such a case to be silent. But that if it pleased Sir Henry 
to hear the one and restrain the other in case it should 
be offered, he then for his part was very ready to give 
his Minister satisfaction to anything he would or could 
propound. Sir Henry commended very much his wisdom 
and government in the manner of his proceeding, and 
called the Minister presently, willing him to propound 
all things freely that he would, but yet with modesty. 
So the Minister began to discourse after their diffuse 
manner, producing many things not digested into any 
good method, nor founded upon any sure grounds of 
faith or learning. Father Garnett suffered him to speak 
his fill, as long as he seemed to continue in one matter, 
and then desired leave to speak. Then he in few words 
and excellent order related the substance of all that the 
other had said, and then repelled it with so substantial 
grounds, and with such demonstration of learning, and that 
even in those kinds which they most esteem and stand 
upon, which is the Scriptures and Tongues, that it put 
the Minister to silence and the Knight to great admiration, 
and all the audience were so satisfied both with his 
modesty and profound learning as it was reported pre- 
sently by them all over London, to the great commen- 
dation of the good Father. But Sir Henry Bromley did 
seem so greatly to admire and affect him, that he affirmed 
to divers gentlemen of account, when he came to London, 
that he never in his life met the like man to Mr. Garnett 
either for modesty, wisdom, or learning, and that he would 
kneel before the King to save his life, if he were not 
found guilty of the Powder. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 159 

When they were come to London, the two Fathers 
were first committed close prisoners to the Gatehouse, 
their two servants to other prisons. When Father Garnett 
was carried into the prison, there stood a great number 
of prisoners at the gate expecting to see him as he 
passed, whom he seeing, asked aloud, "Is there any of 
you that be in for the Catholic faith ?" And divers 
Catholics answering, " Yes, yes, we are Catholics, and 
prisoners for our conscience," " Then," said he, " I am 
your fellow." So he was locked up in a chamber. 

And it was two days after before he was examined, 
whereof the reason was guessed to be in that the Council, 
hearing so much fame of his virtue, gravity, and learning, 
and knowing well how much he was respected by many 
great persons, and esteemed also by the Ambassadors of 
the Catholic Princes then residing in London, it made 
them very wary, and to deliberate much how to proceed 
with him, and would not call him to examination before 
they had informed themselves of as much as they could 
learn of his words and carriage at his taking and bringing 
up to London, many of which (to our great grief and loss) 
are unknown to us ; for that the three that were taken and 
brought up with him are all put to death, and were kept 
close until their death, and the times also have been so 
troublesome since, that we could not have such means as 
we desire to meet and talk with those that were eye- 
witnesses of many notable accidents, which we hope to do 
hereafter, and to have many things brought to light which 
will be greatly to God's glory and all our comfort. 

The third or fourth day after Father Garnett was com- 
mitted to the Gatehouse he was sent for to be examined by 
five or six of the Privy Council, at which time, as ever after, 
they used him with great respect, unusual from meaner 
Commissioners than the Privy Council when Priests are 
examined, and especially those of the Society, whom, as 
being more hated by them, they are accustomed to revile 



160 A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 

with many bitter and disgraceful terms, whereof traitor is 
the least But to Father Garnett the contrary was so far 
used that the Lords themselves would seldom speak unto 
him but they would put off their hat, and sometimes hold 
it off a good while, and they did usually call him Mr. 
Garnett at every word. Of this his first examination we 
have not the particular ; but this only in general, that he 
answered so to all their questions that he gave them great 
satisfaction, and they after his departure gave him great 
commendation. Yea, one of the Council said, "he could 
not be misliked but for matter of doctrine only. As for 
the Powder he was clear of it." So he was sent back to the 
Gatehouse for the time. But that time was very short, for 
he was soon after lodged in a stronger hold and in a 
straiter prison, where neither any that wished him well 
could come near him to understand how he was used, and 
where there wanted not instruments full of subtlety and 
cruel hatred against him, who would be sure to use him far 
otherwise" than so mild a disposition and so worthy a man 
deserved. 



CHAPTER XL 

OF FATHER GARNETT, HIS CARRIAGE TO THE TOWER 
AND SUBTLE USAGE THERE. ALSO OF THE USAGE 
OF FR. OULDCORNE AND NICHOLAS OWEN, RALPH, 
AND JOHN GRISOLL IN THE SAME PLACE. 

The expectation of this matter touching Father Garnett 
was great in every place, and the conceits of men very 
diverse and their discourses different what would become 
of so notable a man, being so famous for learning and 
piety and modesty as that his very enemies could speak 
no other but much good of him, unless they would so 
apparently wrong their judgments by judging contrary to 
the sight of all men. Some thought he should have 
favour, because they saw him used with such respect; 
some deemed it most likely they meant to permit his 
friends to redeem his life, as not finding sufficient pretence 
to put him to death, and therefore better to gratify some 
courtier with that which would be given for his life ; in 
which hope I know one devout gentlewoman who offered 
500/. as a fee to a courtier, that was very likely to obtain 
it if that had been their intention. Others judged this 
stay that was made of sending him to the Tower was but 
to give such hope to Catholics, and to see who would make 
suit for him in any kind ; others, again, that it was done to 
try his constancy first by fair means, meaning afterwards 
to make trial of him by contrary usage, if that would not 
serve the turn. Briefly, the general report was that he 
was free from the Plot, and not to be touched with 
this conspiracy, which even Protestants affirmed to be 
most likely, in that he was not accused by any of the 
L 



1 62 A Narrative of 

conspirators, as might be easily seen in their printed 
examinations, for that above all the rest would have been 
printed, if by favour or force or fear it could have been 
wrung out of them. Now as for Catholics, it was generally 
their opinion that he was innocent, for they knew very well 
he could not be guilty who had so often and so effectually 
laboured to stay them from all attempts or disobedience, 
though in matters of much less moment than this so cruel 
intention against the Parliament House. 

But whilst all London and England was full of 
expectation what issue this cause would have, and every 
man gave his judgment of the matter according to his 
several humour and opinion, that course was taken 
which was from the first intended, and he was delivered 
up to the Lieutenant of the Tower, a fit instrument 
for such a purpose, as being a man most pliable to 
the will of those that had no will to do Father Garnett 
good. And the man's mind and manner of proceeding 
may be seen by his first salutation to Father Garnett when 
he was brought into the Tower, for presently he began to 
revile him, saying " he was a plotter of all treasons." But 
Father Garnett gave him no answer, and being demanded 
why he did not answer to those accusing words, he said 
" he was not moved with his words, for Christ his Master 
had taught him by His own example to bear quietly such 
contumely." 

His lodging and first usage there was not evil in 
exterior things (supposing the condition of the place), 
which doth allow no bed or any such provision to any 
prisoner but such as himself doth provide from his friends 
abroad ; which help, until it be procured, a prisoner there 
may by favour have some straw to lie upon, and that was 
Father Garnett his couch until such necessaries could be 
sent unto him, which in his case could hardly be procured 
without danger to the senders, nor but by divers circum- 
stances. First he was to send to some known prisoner or 



the Gunpowder Plot. 16 



3 



notorious Catholic, not as acquainted with him, but as 
by request in the way of charity. Then that party did 
send unto his friends, and after that it was not long in 
doing, but yet all done with great circumspection, as not 
doubting but all those that brought such things to that 
Catholic's house that must seem to send them, would be 
watched narrowly, and perhaps dogged to their home, 
which is an ordinary practice in all such cases. 

Being now settled in the Tower, the Council came 
thither to examine him, but found him always the same 
man, both constant in his faith and function, and faithful 
to his friends. For though they pretended they would not 
deal with him in any matter concerning his Priesthood 
(desiring, indeed, to have his case esteemed different from 
others against whom they had formerly proceeded), yet 
were many questions such as if he had answered either 
weakly or unwisely he must needs have brought many of 
his friends to great trouble ; as, where he had lived for a 
long time, how he had been maintained, what places he was 
at in that last journey, what company he had met at the 
places which they affirmed he did stay in, and finally, whom 
he knew or had had any dealings withal. But he quit 
himself so wisely, and answered so resolutely in them all, 
as did sufficiently declare he neither could lawfully, nor 
would upon any condition detect others, knowing nothing 
by them but the exercise of Catholic religion and practice 
of virtue. Finally, there was not any whosoever of high or 
low degree that came in trouble by his default or oversight. 
There were also many occasions offered in those several 
examinations of showing his skill and knowledge in 
matters of learning. In particular for matter of equivo- 
cation, wherein he was much and often urged, and ever 
gave them such satisfaction as in reason they could 
wish no more. The particulars of divers such-like 
things we cannot as yet procure, they are kept so close 
(as commonly it is most done where they find least 



164 A Narrative of 

advantage) ; only that matter of equivocation being spoken 
of again at the bar by Mr. Attorney, 1 then he referred to 
the former full satisfaction he had given them in his 
several examinations, though there again he repeated some 
points thereof briefly, as shall appear when we come to* 
handle his arraignment. 

The Council, finding that no advantage was to be 
gotten of him in his examinations, either against himself 
or others in this chief matter, they committed the care and 
charge of proceeding with him in that kind unto the Lord 
Chief Justice and the Attorney-General, to wit, Pophani 
and Coke, both professed enemies to Catholics and their 
religion, who were so forward or rather so desirous to 
undertake the business, that (as it is said) they offered, if 
they might have their full scope to deal with him as the)- 
thought good, they would undertake to prove him guilty in 
the Plot of Powder. I pray God, that of the Prophet David 
be not proved against them both, "Veloces pedes eorum 
ad effundendum sanguinem," 2 when they shall be cited to a 
higher Tribunal, where neither the one shall plead nor the 
other be judge, but both be judged " secundum mensuram 
qua mensi fuerint." 3 

Father Garnett was delivered over to their pleasure, 4 
and it pleased them to examine him very often. In 
all which, though they found no advantage at all, yet, 
after three or four examinations, they were so bold as 
to give it out that he had confessed all. But this was 
for another end. For hereupon presently the Attorney 
spake in the Parliament House to have eight Jesuits 
condemned of this treason by the High Court of Parlia- 

1 Who must needs have a fling at it, because his place was not to speak 
much before, when the Council did examine him. Erased tu Orig. 

~ 2 " Their feet are swift to shed blood " (Psalm xiii. 3). 

;i According to the measure they have meted. 

4 As Job to the accusing enemy, to persecute by bloody interrogations and 
other vexations also, as they should find it needful, reserving his life. Erased 
in Or/?. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 165 

•ment, vidlt, Garnett, Hall, Greenway, Gerard, Hamon, 
Westmoreland (there being no such of the Society), 
Cresswell, and Baldwin. But the Parliament refused to 
condemn these men without better proof of their being 
guilty, and therefore willed the Attorney (seeing he had 
Garnett's examinations) to lay down the next day the 
proofs before them, which he promised to do in so clear 
manner as their lordships should rest satisfied of their 
guiltiness, and that by Garnett's own confession. At the 
time appointed he brings his proofs, which all proved no 
confession of Father Garnett (as he had promised), and 
indeed nothing else but mere conjectures, imaginations, 
and inferences of his own, and that with so little colour of 
likely truth as no man applauded the motion, although 
there were very many that were no friends to the 
parties accused (to speak the least), and so Mr. Attorney 
his motion died, and was never after revived. Yea, a 
nobleman coming from the Parliament at that time, said 
to his friend, that these lawyers were so accustomed to 
lie that they could say truth in no place. But indeed 
Mr. Attorney must be excused for this time, the cause and 
case being very particular and a thing much sought for 
and long desired ; and if it could have been thus huddled 
up without further examination, that so many of the 
Society might have stood convicted by Act of Parliament, 
it would have been (as they well hoped) a stain of record 
to the whole Society. But it pleased God otherwise to 
afflict and exercise his servants at that time " et infatuavit 
Deus consilium Achitophel." 1 I wish him from my heart a 
better end than Achitophel had, though his device and 
advice in this matter was of like malice. There were 
also some questions sent unto Father Garnett from the 
Parliament itself, and he answered to all their demands by 
writing in such sort as gave good satisfaction. 

The Chief Justice and Attorney, in the meantime, did 
1 And God infatuated "the counsel of Achitophel " (2 Kings xv. 31). 



1 66 A Narrative of 

often visit Father Garnett, but not in that manner that they 
may expect to hear for their labour, "In carcere eram 
et visitastis Me." 1 They did daily vex him with subtle 
examinations and cruel interrogations, but finding they 
could win nothing by these means, they devised, by 
treacherous stratagems, to discover the secrets of his- 
heart, if any were concealed by him of which they might 
take advantage. And to this end caused the keeper that 
had particular charge to keep his prison close and surely 
locked, and who alone was admitted to come unto him and 
to bring him his meat and other necessaries which he 
wanted. This man was directed to feign himself much 
moved with Father Garnett his behaviour and words (as, 
indeed, they were sufficient to move a better and wiser man 
than him that had not been without grace), and to pretend 
that he began to be much inclined and almost won to the 
Catholic faith, and, in the meantime, to show himself very 
friendly, and promise to be faithful to Father Garnett in, 
anything wherein he might do him service. And the 
fellow was so cunning in this art of cozenage, and set so 
fair a gilt upon his copper, that the good Father, being full 
of charity, "quae omnia credit et omnia sperat," 2 did hope 
the best of his mind, though he meant not to trust him so 
far as might greatly endanger either himself or others until 
he had better trial. But yet he made use of his offer so 
far as to send by him some notes of ordinary matters 
(as the fellow might think) ; first unto a prisoner in the 
Gatehouse, a virtuous Priest and his kinsman of his own 
name, unto whom he sent a short letter concerning some 
necessaries that he wanted, which letter being written with 
ordinary ink, he wrote besides in the margent and in the 
free parts of the paper some other things with the juice of 
orange, which could not be seen without holding to the 
fire, and would not have been suspected if the letter had. 

1 "I was in prison and you came to Me " (St. Matt. xxv. 36). 

2 " Which believeth all things, hopeth all things " (1 Cor. xiii. 7). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 167 

only by casualty come to light. But this faithless 
messenger, opposing his malice to the Father's charity, 
carried the letter presently to be scanned, which imported 
(besides the writing in black) a brief relation of the Father's 
estate, the effect of his examination, and that he was so 
clear of the Powder that the same could not be proved 
against him. When this letter was thus read by warming 
at the fire, because it could not then be delivered to the 
Priest, they therefore counterfeited the Father's hand 
and sent it to Mr. Garnett in the Gatehouse, to deceive 
him also and to make him to return answer to the Father, 
that so he might think himself secure, and be emboldened 
to commit yet further trust unto this false messenger. 1 

Then the Father, knowing how great care his friends 
abroad had of him, hoped he might use this man in like 
manner unto Mrs. Ann Vaux, a noble gentlewoman, and 
aunt unto the Baron I had occasion to speak of in 
the former chapters, who had for a long time showed great 
devotion and charity, serving Christ in His servants, much 
like, in her intended course, to those holy women of 
Matt. 27. whom the Evangelist speaketh, " Quae secutae 
sunt Jesum a Galilaea ministrantes ei." 2 This gentlewoman, 
out of her great and faithful charity to Father Garnett, 
followed him, indeed, not only when she might with liberty 
enjoy the comfort of his spiritual and fatherly counsel, but 
also with great constancy and an undaunted mind, seeking 
by all means possible how she might assist him in his 
troubles. She therefore, being most desirous to perform 
all friendly offices to Father Garnett, and, as charity is 
ever more careful of another's want than fearful of their 

1 This letter was so cunningly counterfeited that it could not be distinguished 
from Fr. Garnett his own hand, and it was signed also and so licensed to pass 
with the lieutenant his brand unto it. Yet all such necessaries as the Father 
writ for and the other sent were seized upon by the Lieutenant, and the Priest 
himself brought after in great trouble for returning this charitable answer. 
Erased in Orig. 

2 "Who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him" (St. Matt, 
xxvii. 55). 



1 68 A Narrative of 

own danger, and more solicitous to provide for the one 
than to prevent the other : understanding that Mr. Garnett 
in the Gatehouse had received a letter safely (as it was 
thought) by the means of this keeper, she procured to 
speak with the man, and finding by all outward signs that 
he did much affect the good Father (whom she well knew 
to deserve so much affection), she thought she might be 
bold to send unto her good Father by him. And so 
she did, desiring to know what he wanted, and what 
she might perform to procure him any comfort. So 
that under hope of this safe means there passed divers 
letters between them by this keeper, all which were 
first delivered by him to those that had employed him in 
that bad office ; who procured the letters to be so finely 
counterfeited, that being delivered they were received on 
both sides for the true hands of the first writers. And so 
their trust was deceived on both sides, and their letters 
sent by so false a messenger were continually read, which 
they thought had passed so safely. By which train they 
afterwards entrapped the gentlewoman and bred her 
trouble, as I will declare in his place. 

But in the meantime, finding nothing by all this 
that might touch Father Garnett in that degree which 
they most desired (there passing nothing in those 
letters but either spiritual comforts from the good 
Father, or relation of his estate and examinations, and 
how he would have some matters disposed of which 
belonged to his charge, and which he had not means 
before to give order for, in respect of the late great 
troubles which had happened) ; therefore, this not succeed- 
ing as yet to their full desire, though they kept this still 
on foot, yet they invented and put in practice another 
subtle craft, so much further from suspicion as it was 
nearer home, where the Father might to his thinking 
freely speak unto his friend without fear that his words 
should come to scanning, which letters are often subject unto. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 169 

The hole in the wall where the T ° tllIs eild tl ^Y P laCed Father 

FFr, were overheard. Ouldcorne in a chamber near unto 
Father Garnett. And one time this sly companion 
and cunning or rather cozening keeper, making show 
of great love to Father Garnett, told him there was 
a thing wherein he knew the Father would take great 
comfort, and which he would be willing to grant (as 
desiring to do him any service), but that he durst never 
as yet tell him of it, least it should be espied by others, 
and then he was undone. And this was, forsooth, that he 
might at some convenient times come to speak with 
Father Ouldcorne ; and that he would willingly grant them 
both this favour, ' so that Father Garnett would promise 
never to disclose it, and give the like charge unto Father 
Ouldcorne. This being promised, the fellow showed Father 
Garnett the way unto the wall of Father Ouldcorne's 
chamber, wherein there was a cleft by which they might 
well speak together and hear one the other, if they did 
speak of any loudness. This was accepted by both the 
Fathers as a great courtesy ; as indeed it is no small 
comfort in such a place to men of their quality, if this 
honey had not been stuffed with too much gall. But this 
dogged fellow dogged them so closely, as they could never 
meet but he would be of the council, though unseen by 
them ; for the place was purposely so contrived as that the 
sound of their words must needs be carried to another 
place not far off, where this keeper would stand and some 
other with him, to have a double witness in their double 
dealing. Whereupon it happened not long after that these 
two Fathers, thinking themselves secure in this point, took 
some fit time (as they thought) to have each other's help 
in the Sacrament of Confession. And after they had 
ended their spiritual business, they began to confer of 
each other's estate, demanding what had been asked 
and what answered in the times of their examinations. 
Amongst other things, Father Ouldcorne demanding of 



17° A Narrative of 

Father Garnett whether Mr. Winter's going into Spain 
and his negotiation there were not laid to his charge, 
to this the Father answered, "He could answer that well 
enough, for after that time he had the King's general 
pardon at the time of his coming to the crown, that 
other business with Spain being in the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth." Then Father Ouldcorne also demanded 
whether he were not pressed with this matter of the 
Powder Treason, as being a likely thing they would 
urge that above all other matters against him. Father 
Garnett answered, that " so they did ; but that they 
could prove no such matter against him, and that 
no man living could touch him in that matter, but 
one." This, lo, was the word that afterwards bred him 
so much trouble, and others of his friends so much 
grief, until by his public answers he had cleared their 
doubts, and by his death put the matter out of doubt, 
that he was not to be charged with any crime in the 
matter of that treason, but that there was one man 
alone that could accuse him so far forth as might give 
a likely pretence to their laws to proceed against him, 
especially his enemies being his judges, and they not 
judged or ruled by the law of conscience, in which the 
Father was clear. This word, as the rest also, was over- 
heard by the keeper and another easing-dropper, his 
companion in that listening and cony-catching office. Then 
they thought they had enough. This was carried with 
all speed unto the Council, with no small joy ; as it was 
foretold by Christ should befall his followers. " Mundus 
gaudebit, vos vero contristabimini." 1 But this lot is not 
ever to lie on their side; for He that permits this to His 
servants for a time, hath promised also " quod tristitia 
vestra vertetur in gaudium," and then "gaudium vestrum 

1 "The world shall rejoice and you shall be made sorrowful, but your 
sorrow shall be turned into joy . . . and your joy no man shall take from 
you" (St. John xvi. 20, 22). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 171 

nemo toilet a vobis." Then shall be verified, "Vaevobis 
qui ridetis nunc, quia flebitis," 1 and that with fruitless and 
yet everlasting tears. God grant they may see and shun 
the danger, which is far greater and more to be feared 
than that which did or could befall this good Father by 
this seeming misfortune. But to proceed. 

Then it was resolved presently, that either by fear 
or force they would wring out of him who this person 
was that only could accuse him, and how far he could 
be accused. Then they resolved also to pull off the 
vizard from the dissembling face of the false keeper, 
and that he should no more show his former readiness to 
please or pleasure the good Father ; but only that he 
should bring the good gentlewoman into the snare, which 
he had before drawn her into by his faithless promising, 
which he performed in this manner. Finding the devout 
The trouble of Mrs. Ann Vaux. gentlewoman desirous to see her 
good Father at the window of his prison, he promised 
to satisfy her wishes therein, and appointed a time 
when she should come to the Tower privately, and he 
would carry her to a place where she should at the 
least see him, if not speak with him. She failed not 
of her time ; but coming thither found such signs and 
causes of distrust, that she returned sooner than she 
had intended, and was followed by persons prepared for 
the purpose, to see whither she would go to take her 
lodging, thereby not only to bring her, but her friends also 
in question. The gentlewoman, perceiving herself to be 
dogged, would not go to her own lodging nor to any 
Catholic house ; but wisely intended to have gone into the 
prison of Newgate, where there was great store of Priests 
and other Catholics, unto which many of all sorts had 
continual access. Thus far they let her pass quietly, but 
when they saw she intended to go no further, they 
presently staid her, and with some rough usage carried her 
1 "Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep" (St. Luke vi. 25). 



172 A Narrative of 

back unto the Tower, from whence she came, and there 
committed her prisoner, which is a very unwonted place 
for women to be committed in. But her extraordinary- 
zeal towards her good Father deserved this extraordinary 
honour of being thereby more noted and spoken of, by this 
confession both of her faith and fervour, which was so 
much the more honourable as the confession was more 
public, and that was so much the more, as the place was 
more eminent where she was imprisoned. 

Presently after her imprisonment, there were many 
false rumours spread and slanders raised, according to 
their custom in such cases (where they desire most 
to obscure the most known virtues and best deserving 
persons) for it was reported in many mouths that 
Father Garnett was married to this gentlewoman, and 
such like stuff, which forsooth they would have there- 
fore the rather believed in that she was forward to 
adventure for him, and to go to see a man in so great 
danger as he was : not understanding how much more 
force true charity hath than fond affection, but " Animalis 
homo non percipit ea quae Dei sunt." 1 And they measure 
others by their own desires, not feeling any spark of that 
heat which moved so many good Maries to follow Christ 
and His Apostles, nor tasting any part of their comfort, 
who ministering corporal food unto their spiritual Pastors, 
receive also from God by their ministration that heavenly 
manna "quod nemo novit nisi qui accipit." 2 But those 
reports soon died, when they saw her sober and modest 
behaviour, giving very good example and as great edifi- 
cation by her carriage as she did satisfaction by her 
answers in all the time of her imprisonment, never 
relenting or repenting the forward zeal she had showed to 
help her good Father in his need ; but rather contrary, that 

1 "The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of 
■God" (1 Cor. ii. 14). 

2 Which no man knoweth but he who receiveth it. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 173 

she should as willingly bestow her life as her labour to do 
God service in that kind. And so my Lord of Salisbury 
did give her testimony at Father Garnett's arraignment. 

About this time also was Mr. Garnett, the Priest in the 
Gatehouse, brought into further trouble for the letter he 
had received by the treacherous keeper, although it was 
signed and so licensed with the Lieutenant his hand, who 
had also, notwithstanding this leave given, seized upon all 
such necessaries as were then sent unto Father Garnett by 
this good Priest, and he was now also called into question 
about the whole matter, and strictly examined, and so 
removed from the Gatehouse to the Tower, where he 
remained in likely expectation both of torture and death 
for his charity shown to Father Garnett, to whom no man 
could show any friendship, and be withal esteemed 
" amicus Caesaris." 

Then the Council appointed a set time of coming 
to the Tower to examine Father Garnett upon this 
advantage they had by cunning Avon of him out of his 
own words. There came thither to that end the Lord 
of Salisbury, the Lord of Suffolk, the Lord Northampton 
and others. How Father Garnett had been used in 
the meantime for his preparation to this business Ave 
cannot learn, but A\ T e have cause to think it was not so Avell 
at this time especially, as he out of his modesty was 
content to affirm of his usage in general, being asked the 
question at his arraignment. For Avhen he Avas brought 
before the Lords, he Avas in a very strange plight, so 
thirsty as not able to spit or speak ; beer Avas called for, 
and he drank tAvo glasses before them ; Avithal he Avas 
so droAvsy, as not able to hold up his head; he com- 
plaining that he had not slept in five nights before. It 
Avas reported by divers of good intelligence in London, that 
he Avas Avatched of purpose and kept from sleep to make 
his head light, and himself less able to bear that Avhich 
should be imposed upon him ; also that he had some 



174 -A Narrative of 

mixtures of intoxicating drink given him which should 
obscure his understanding and distemper his body. But 
in respect that Father Garnett being asked the question 
in public, did not take knowledge of any extraordinary 
hard usage in those kinds, I for my part do- rather think 
it was done, but in such manner as himself could not 
perceive, by mixing his drink or meat with such confec- 
tions as might work both those effects to distemper his 
body and hinder his sleep, and yet the Father not know 
when or how it was procured. 

At this time he was so heavy in his head, that being 
not fit to be examined, the Lords permitted him to go 
sleep an hour, and then being awaked, he was brought 
unto them again, but was little better. Then they did 
examine him of many things concerning the Powder 
Treason, and particularly seemed to take knowledge that 
one had confessed something of him in that kind, and 
asked seriously whether there were not some one that 
could accuse him therein : which he confidently denied as 
thinking himself as secure from being accused in the 
knowledge of the matter as he was in conscience clear 
from all consent or approbation of the thing itself. When 
they saw him so absolute in denying this point, they 
carried him to the house of torture and there did torture 
him for some time ; it is thought not very long. 1 For then 
they opened the whole secret, how he had been overheard 
speak at the hole in the wall with Father Ouldcorne, and 
that he said, there was one man that could accuse him, of 
which words they produced two witnesses that said they 
heard him speak them ; and how many more were brought 
in we know not. But Father Garnett then seeing his trust 
deceived and the matter discovered, thought it best for 
divers reasons not to stand in it any longer ; but said that 
" in tanta nube testium," 2 he would utter the matter justly as 

1 But the time we cannot certainly learn. Erased in Orig. 

2 In so great a cloud of witnesses. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 175 

it was, that being the time wherein he might lawfully do 
it, and before he could not : the knowledge that he had 
being a secret committed to him in confession, which the 
penitent did only license him to utter, to save himself 
from torture, but not in any other case. 

Then being taken down from the torture, he was 
demanded, how far he was of counsel or a furtherer of the 
Plot of Powder. He answered he was never any furtherer 
of it, but did ever both mislike it in his heart, and in what 
he could did hinder it. And being asked how it was, or by 
whom he might then be accused ; he answered that he 
could not be otherwise accused of it, but that he had only 
a simple knowledge of it, and that also in so secret a 
manner as that it was never lawful for him to utter it, 
being in confession. They asked him how it came to be 
more lawful now to utter it than before. He said, in 
respect that now he had leave granted by the penitent, 
who had licensed him to utter it, rather than endure 
torture for keeping his confession secret. And being urged 
by some of the Lords, why it might be lawful to utter the 
secret of confession to save himself from torture, and not 
lawful to utter it for the saving of so many great persons 
from death, &c, he answered it was lawful in neither case, 
but by the license of the penitent, who only could "dilatare" 
or " restringere sigillum secreti," 1 which appertained to 
himself. Being then required to tell who that party was ; he 
answered, they should see, he would deal plainly with them 
in all things, it being now lawful to utter his knowledge 
therein ; and said, " the man was Father Oswald Tesimond." 

This acknowledgment of Father Garnett's was after 
censured by many ; and even by some of his friends and 
well-wishers esteemed a weakness in him. But if the causes 
that moved him thereunto be well weighed (as they were no 
doubt very well considered by him) the matter will not be 
found to deserve any imputation of fear or imprudence in 
1 To enlarge or restrain the seal of the secret. 



176 A Narrative of 

Father Garnett. For after it was once bolted out at the 
hole in the wall that he was to be accused of it (which 
thing indeed made the overture to all) if he had then 
insisted upon denial, that would neither have saved his 
life, nor his estimation touching that matter ; yea rather, it 
would have left him suspected of further practice as a 
principal plotter of the matter, and withal would have 
made all the rest of his true assertions the more distrusted. 
Whereas by telling the plain truth, that he only heard it in 
confession, he did both show himself and the party from 
whom he heard it to be free from being either principals or 
parties in the action, especially declaring unto them as he 
did how the matter passed, to wit, that Father Tesimond 
came unto him much troubled about the matter, desiring 
for the ease of his conscience to go to confession, and 
therein declared, that such an intention and practice was 
opened unto him ; wherein he might have some doubt 
whether he had done his duty. For though (as I have heard 
it affirmed by some of credit, that since have spoken with 
Father Tesimond) he did utterly mislike the practice, and 
refuse to assist them any way, either by counsel or other- 
wise, yet doubts or scruples fit for confession might arise in 
his mind two divers ways. First, on the one side he might 
be doubtful whether he had sufficiently dissuaded them 
from it, and used the best and most effectual reasons to 
withdraw them from proceeding therein, both in respect of 
the matter itself and of the charge he had from his 
Superiors not to meddle with any matter of State, much 
less of that quality that concerned the life of any, or 
attempts against the Prince. So on the other side, he 
might have some motions to doubt whether in that case 1 
God did not intend by them to punish heresy and revenge 
the cause and quarrel of his servants with a temporal 

3 Being no causer of it himself, he should not have left them to themselves 
without seeking to divert them from their purpose ; not knowing whether. 
Erased in Orip. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 177 

affliction to some of their chiefest afflictors, which he knew 
well would be much more severely punished in the next 
world if it be not repented in this. Therefore being 
uncertain of the secret judgments of God, and seeing them 
so resolute in it, and to protest they did it only for the 
redeeming of the Church from persecution in England 
and like danger in other places, if the root of heresy 
should continue ; but especially that they did it to save 
so many souls as daily were cast away, whilst heresy was in 
that strength and power, against which also, they said, no 
other means was left in human likelihood by which they 
could hope redress of so many evils, much greater without 
comparison than the loss of such as were to perish in the 
action. Remembering therefore the reasons they alleged, 
though he was sure he might not himself be an actor or 
furtherer thereof in any kind, yet perhaps he might doubt 
how far he was bound to hinder it in others. And so the 
matter on both sides might breed some doubts, and 
whether he feared he had done too much, or too little, in 
the cause, yet his fear on either side might be cause 
sufficient of confession 5 1 and his confession a sign that he 
rather disliked than approved the Plot in any sort. For 
either he must confess that he had hindered it or not. 
If that he had hindered it, then he was no furtherer of it ; 
if that he had not hindered it sufficiently, then it was 
apparent he misliked the Plot, and meant to hinder it. 
But the truth indeed was (as I have heard it) that he had 
sought to hinder it by persuasion ; but was doubtful 
whether in so earnest and effectual manner as might be 
likely to prevail with so absolute resolutions. 

Father Garnett, therefore, opening the plain truth of 
the matter according to the leave he had of the penitent in 
that case, did not any way prejudice, but rather relieve, 

1 And the confession being only of his knowledge what others had opened 
unto him of their intentions so long time after they had begun the practice. 
Erased in Orig, 
M 



178 A Narrative of 

both his own and his penitent's case as things then stood. 
But some will say, what needed Father Garnett have 
opened the name of the party, and not rather indefinitely 
have affirmed that some one in confession did open it 
unto him. But this (if it be well considered) would not 
have served. For, first, if he had named no person, he 
could never have taken away the fear and jealousy of the 
King and State, knowing assuredly that one man yet lived 
that was privy to the matter, and for ought they knew 
might be still in the same mind, and live in place, or be of 
power, to effect some mischief. Besides, by such conceal- 
ment, he might fear great troubles would follow to many 
Catholics, especially that all the friends of the Society 
would have been troubled with continual examinations, 
searches, and vexations ; and that his particular acquaint- 
ance should assuredly have been suspected, imprisoned, 
and convented before the Council as traitors under this 
pretence ; and so to save one man from trouble he should 
have been the cause of trouble to many, besides his own 
extremity of torture, which would have been with all force 
and fury laid upon him until he had told the truth. And 
to name any other person living, it was not lawful, because 
not true ; and to name one of the gentlemen that were 
slain would not have been sufficient, he having said that 
one man living might accuse him. And to name in 
particular Father Tesimond did not seem to give any just 
cause of increase to the hard opinion they had of him 
before, knowing by Mr. Winter of his going into Spain 
with him (though they mistook the cause) and by Bates 1 of 
his going unto the gentlemen in Warwickshire after they 
were up in arms, though there also they misinterpret his 
intention. But this supposed, and he thereby as much 
laid for and as likely to suffer (if he were taken) by their 
former conceits, as by this one particular, this circumstance 
of his uttering it in confession might rather extenuate than 
1 Of his knowledge thereof from him, and. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 179 

aggravate his peril in just reason and the opinion conceived 
of him. For as I showed before, it proved a dislike of the 
action, or an endeavour against it, or both, and this before 
his confession. Then Father Garnett adding thereunto his 
further charge, that he should do his uttermost to dissuade 
and divert them from their purpose, and he promising to do 
his best, all these points do prove sufficiently that he was 
neither contriver nor counsellor, nor yet consenter to the 
Plot, of all which he stood then accused in the procla- 
mation, so that the knowledge of the truth might seem to 
help and not to hinder him in anything. 

These and many more effectual reasons no doubt were 
considered by Father Garnett, which moved him not to 
conceal the whole truth of his knowledge, and the means 
how it came unto him ; which cannot therefore be justly 
imputed to any frailty or imprudence in him, but rather 
esteemed as an argument of his care to take away 
jealousies from the King, who could not fear any further 
power or practice in Father Tesimond ; to prevent troubles 
from Catholics ; to free himself and the other also from 
opinion of any consent unto the Plot ; but especially to 
ah others of the Society apparently clear all the rest of the Society 

cleared from any knowledge of 

the Plot. from so much as the least know- 

ledge that any such thing was intended. Which truth 
may evidently be proved out of Father Garnett's words, 
"That one only could accuse him of his knowledge 
thereof;" for if any more of the Society had known thereof, 
it is certain they would and must have confessed the same 
to him, if they took it for a fault ; if otherwise, at least 
have sought his advice out of confession. So that no more 
imparting the matter to him, it was apparent no more 
did know of it ; and therefore very likely to be God's 
especial providence that Father Garnett should be overheard 
to speak these words unto his confident friend in private 
(whereby it was most apparent he meant not to be heard 
by others), that thereby all others might be cleared ; though 



180 A Narrative of 

for the time it occasioned his further trouble, which God 
doth often permit to His elected servants, for their further 
increase of glory in another world. 

This, therefore, Father Garnett acknowledged then in 
his examination before the Council, that they might see, 
as he told them, he dealt truly and plainly with them in 
all things. And they asking him why he did not before 
acknowledge so much, but did protest against it, he 
answered it was not before lawful for him to do it, because 
he had no leave but in that case ; and that it was a thing 
both lawful in all laws, divine and human, and ordinary also 
in their own practice, for men to plead not guilty, until 
they be convicted by witness, which he especially might do 
in this case, this being no sin or crime in him, and was bound 
to do until this time, it being before " sigillum secreti con- 
fessionis," 1 which now was released by the penitent's leave. 

So they left Father Garnett for the time ; but 
carried with them matter enough, as they thought, to 
convict him of this treason in show of the world. To 
which end it was presently given out through the whole 
town, that he had confessed all, and now they could 
prove the Jesuits to be principal plotters of this treason, 
and him and Greenway to be chief authors and devisers 
of the same ; and it was in most men's mouths that 
all this was under Garnett's hand confessed. And this 
presently carried unto the Ambassadors there residing, 
that by them it might be divulged in others States ; and 
so a falsehood first grounded, might be more hard to be 
removed by sequent information of the truth, and their 
proceedings against Father Garnett might seem more justi- 
fiable. This report, although it troubled the Catholics of 
England much until they knew the contrary, yet could they 
not believe it, being so well acquainted with the giving out 
of such things, as the chiefest do desire to have believed, 
although the truth be often found on the contrary side. 
1 The seal of the secret of confession. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 181 

In the meantime Father Ouldcorne was also called in 
further question about this conference and about his 
knowledge of the treason ; but they found him always 
like himself, both virtuous and wise and constant in both, 
and as, indeed, he knew nothing thereof, so he ever 
professed his absolute innocency therein and patiently 

Father Ouldcorne tortured, endured the extreme torments they 
put him unto, as I have heard five hours every day, four 
or five days together, which was a greater extremity than 
one will easily believe that hath not tried it. 

Likewise one that did attend upon Father Ouldcorne, 
and did assist him in his journeys and many good works 
when he was at liberty, did now suffer with him, as he 

Rafe tortured, afterwards died with him. His name was 
Ralph ; x and he was divers times put upon the torture ; 
but the certain number or measure of the times I cannot 
yet learn. But he patiently and constantly endured all 
without revealing any one place or person of his master's 
acquaintance. 

But, above all, they were most troubled and tormented 
that were known most to belong unto Father Garnett ; 
of which kind they had first taken one John Grissold, an 

John Grissoi, his extreme honest faithful man, who had the 

usage and tortures. keeping Q f a house where ^ f oreS aid 

Mrs. Ann Vaux and a kinswoman of hers did use to 
dwell near unto London, and where they imagined 
Father Garnett did also remain with them. This honest 
man being taken in the beginning of the troubles, was 
first committed close prisoner to the Gatehouse and 
there lodged in a dungeon upon the bare ground, for 
the keeper (though he were earnestly entreated by the 
other prisoners) would not allow him so much as 
straw to lie upon, pretending that if he had any straw 
to lie on, he would with that set fire on the house. This 

1 Ralph Ashley, for eight years Father Ouldcorne's servant, is believed, 
like Nicholas Owen, to have been a Lay-brother of the Society. — Ed. 



1 82 A Narrative of 

man did both endure his affliction with great patience and 
answer in all his examinations with great constancy and 
fidelity. But afterwards, when Father Garnett was taken 
and prisoner in the Tower, the Commissioners desiring to 
get matter against him, removed this man to the Tower 
also, and there put him to the torture with great extremity 
and very often, almost every day for a long time together, 
as we did confidently hear reported ; with which and with 
other bad usage in his diet and lodging, he was for a long 
time after like to die, and it was thought by many that 
he was dead, and doubtless he escaped very hardly. 
Nicolas Oven, called But the man that was most extremely 

Little John, martyred . . , 

by torture. used and with extremities brought unto 

the last extremity, which is death itself, was one Nicho- 
las Owen, commonly called and most known by the 
name of Little John. By which name he was so famous 
and so much esteemed by all Catholics, especially 
those of the better sort, that few in England, either 
Priests or others, were of more credit. This man did 
for seventeen or eighteen 1 years continually attend upon 
Father Garnett, and assist him in many occasions. But 
his chief employment was in making of secret places 
to hide Priests and Church stuff in from the fury of 
searches ; in which kind he was so skilful both to devise 
and frame the places in the best manner, and his help 
therein desired in so many places, that I verily think no 
man can be said to have done more good of all those that 
laboured in the English vineyard. For, first, he was the 
immediate occasion of saving the lives of many hundreds 
of persons, both ecclesiastical and secular, and of the 
estates also of these seculars, which had been lost and 
forfeited many times over if the Priests had been taken 
in their houses ; of which some have escaped, not once 
but many times, in several searches that have come to the 
same house, and sometimes five or six Priests together at 

1 1 8 or 19. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 183 

the same time. Myself have been one of the seven that 
have escaped that danger at one time in a secret place 
of his making. How many Priests then may we think 
this man did save by his endeavours in the space of 
seventeen years, having laboured in all shires and in the 
chiefest Catholic houses of England ? Then for spiritual 
good, it is to be noted he was partner with them all in 
the gain of souls wherein he did preserve them ; and to 
which end he intended directly all his works, labouring 
in that painful and dangerous business to keep them in 
safety for the saving of souls, which it appeared well he 
respected more than his own body, for he was not ignorant 
that his office was much subject to the danger of spies, 
and that when he should happen to be taken he was sure 
to be extremely handled to wrest out of him the secrets 
of other men's houses. And so, de facto, he did prove 
it ten years before this his last apprehension, at which 
time being taken with Father Gerard, though it were not 
known directly that he was the man that used to make 
secret places, neither the time as then all out so violent 
(things passing much with us by storms and calms, as in 
times of former persecution), yet was he then put to 
extreme torture, and used besides with all cunning to 
see if either force or fear would make him to relent. But 
when they found that he was so constant he would not 
yield in the least point, and so discreet withal that they 
could not take any advantage of his answers either against 
himself or others, having no evidence at all nor witness to 
come in against him, they could do no more but keep 
him still in prison, which they did until Catholics, that 
could hardly want him abroad, with a good round sum 
of money did purchase his liberty. 

One reason that made him so much desired by 
Catholics of account, who might have had other work- 
men enough to make conveyances in their houses, was 
a known and tried care he had of secrecy, not only 



184 A Narrative of 

from such as would of malice be inquisitive, but from 
all others to whom it belonged not to know ; in which 
he was so careful that you should never hear him 
speak of any houses or places where he had made such 
hides, though sometimes he had occasion to discourse of 
the fashion of them for the making of others. Yea, he 
did much strive to make them of several fashions in several 
places, that one being taken might give no light to the 
discovery of another. Wherein he had no doubt great 
aid from Almighty God, for his places were exceeding 
fortunate (if so we may term the providence of God), 
and no marvel, for he ever began his work with com- 
municating that day he entered upon it, and, as much 
as his labour would give him leave, did continually pray 
whilst he was working. But the contriving of his works 
in the safest manner were also very much assisted by an 
extraordinary wit and discretion which he had in such 
measure as I have seldom in my life seen the like in a 
man of his quality, which is also the opinion of most that 
did know him well. But, above all, that which did most 
commend him both in the sight of God and man, was 
his innocent life and earnest practice of solid virtues. For 
the first it was such, that I think no man can say that 
in all that seventeen or eighteen years they heard him 
swear by any oath, or ever saw him out of charity ; yea, 
I have heard his ghostly Fathers affirm very seriously, 
that in all that time they never knew him to have com- 
mitted mortal sin, nor anything that might be doubted 
to be such. His practice of the chiefest virtues was such 
that he had gotten great habits both in the religious 
virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and no less 
in humility, patience, and charity, which upon all occasions 
were very plainly seen in his conversation and actions, 
insomuch that he was as a pattern of those virtues in every 
house where he came. One trial of his patience I cannot 
omit, because it was most apparent and worthy memory. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 185 

He was sent on a time to London by his Superior to fetch 
certain household stuff behind him upon a horse that was 
somewhat resty. He loaded his horse in an inn, and 
afterwards got up in the saddle with great difficulty ; but 
then the horse would not forward, whether misliking his 
load or no, it is uncertain ; but instead of going forward 
he rose so high with his forefeet that he fell backward and 
fell upon the man and burst his leg ; which sore hurt he 
did bear with so great patience, and in like sort the 
dressing thereof divers times, but especially when being 
false knit, it was needful to have it broken the second 
which was worse than the first, that they all admired him 
in the inn, where he was forced to lie a long time. And 
whereas his friends were much afraid he would there have 
been discovered in his long abode, yet his patience and 
virtue got him so much love that he received no harm, 
but was ever after most welcome to the place. 

Upon this hurt and the ill-setting of the leg-bone, one 
leg was a little bended and shorter than the other, whereof 
he had some halt, but so little as you could scarcely discern 
it ; wherein, as he was made somewhat like in his pace unto 
blessed Father Ignatius (whose child and scholar he was), 
so did he labour to follow his steps in his Rules and holy 
Institution, whereof he was a most religious observer, and 
as we generally think a Lay-coadjutor of the Society, 
admitted by Father Garnett some years before his death, 
though his humble and discreet carriage was such as you 
could not discern any liberty of fellowlike conversation 
that he took thereupon with any of the Society, but rather 
carried himself in all things as a servant. And I have 
some reasons more in particulars to think that he was 
assuredly admitted of the Order, yet those can better tell 
that are of the Society here in England. 

Now to come to the manner of his death. It was 
such as might be expected from so innocent and holy a 
life ; yea, such as the enemy did therefore much malign 



1 86 A Narrative of 

and to seek to hide, and that with disgrace in all he 
might. Being taken with Father Garnett, as hath been 
said, he was first committed to the Marshalsea, and not 
close prisoner of purpose (as it is thought) to observe 
who would come unto him ; but he was too wise to give 
any advantage. When Father Garnett was committed 
to the Tower, he also was sent thither, there to be tortured, 
and that with all extremity, as it was before intended 
when he was first known to be taken ; for even then a 
chief Councillor said, " Is he taken that knows all the secret 
places ? I am very glad of that. We will have a trick for 
him." And so indeed they tricked him when they had 
him in the Tower, for they tortured him so long and so 
often that his bowels gushed out together with his life ; 
which when they did espy, thinking to cover their own 
cruelty with his slander, they gave it out that he had 
slain himself with a knife that was lent him to eat his 
meat withal. And to make this report to go for current 
amongst the common people, they set forth a ballad with 
his picture, ripping out his own bowels with a knife as he 
lay in bed, his keeper being also in the chamber busy 
about some other thing. But this false slander was so 
improbable that even his enemies did not believe it, much 
less his friends that were so well acquainted with his 
innocent life and long-continued practice in virtue, besides 
his former tried constancy in that kind. For all men did 
see it stood with no likelihood that, after all his torments 
so patiently sustained, he should then of impatience or 
fear of more torments cast away himself; for then he 
would rather have done it before his torments, or after the 
first time to prevent the next, for he was beforehand well 
assured they meant to use him with all extremity ; and 
yet all the while he was in the Marshalsea, or where his 
carriage might be seen, no sign of fear or trouble of mind 
could be discerned, but an humble and quiet settled mind, 
using great diligence in prayer, as one that prepared 



the Gunpowder Plot. 187 

himself to his last conflict, which he might well expect, 
especially knowing the state of his body, as he did, which 
I will by-and-bye declare. Again, if he would have yielded 
to sin to save himself from pain, would he not rather have 
yielded to their desires and discovered the secret places 
that he knew, for which he might be well assured not only 
to escape torments, but to be most highly rewarded, as one 
that could have done them more service in that kind than 
any man in England whosoever, and might have brought 
more Priests into their hands and more gentlemen's and 
noblemen's livings into their possession than any one man 
could ; yea, he might have made it almost an impossible 
thing for Priests to escape, knowing the residences of most 
Priests in England, and of all those of the Society, whom 
he might have taken as partridges in a net, knowing all 
their secret places which himself had made, and the 
like conveyances in most of the chief Catholics' houses in 
England, and the means and manner how all such places 
were to be found, though made by others. So that as no 
one man did more good than he in assisting the labours 
of all the Priests that were workmen in that vineyard, so no 
ten men could have done so much harm as he alone might 
if he had been so disposed ; by which he well knew he 
might have made himself great in the world, not only by 
their rewards for so great and extraordinary service, but 
also by the spoil of Catholics' goods, being so many and 
so great, as he might have come to the rifling of, and have 
had no doubt much thereof for his own share, especially 
the Church stuff, which he knew to be very rich in some 
places, and where and how it was laid up. These motives 
therefore of riches, credit, and pleasure, being joined with 
assurance of life and liberty, had been more likely baits 
for him to have bitten at, if he would have swallowed the 
hook of sin for the avoiding of torment, than by the 
torment of death voluntarily assumed, not to end his 
torments, as he well knew, but to begin a never-ending 



1 88 A Narrative of 

and that also much more intolerable torment in hell-fire. He 
wanted neither wit nor knowledge in spiritual things to 
discern the great difference between these two ; especially 
seeing on the one side with pleasures and riches in the 
world to be joined a longer life, and so a time wherein he 
might at last hope to do penance and be saved. Whereas 
on the other side he could see nothing but present death 
without comfort, and that but "initium dolorum," 1 the door, 
as it were, into the house of horror, despair, and everlasting 
torments. 

No ; the truth was this : the man had lived a saintly 
life, and his death was answerable, and he a glorious 
martyr of extraordinary merit. God assisted him with so 
much grace that in all his torments he gave not the least 
sign of relenting, not any sign of impatience, not any one 
word by which the least of his acquaintance either did or 
might come in any trouble, of which three kinds they could 
not so much as feign any little instance to set forth with 
their forged slander, but set out the bare lie without any 
colour or likelihood at all. Indeed, I think they intended 
not to have killed him by torture, though they meant to 
give him enough, and more than ever any sustained of 
whom we can find records. For he hung in the torture 
seven hours together, and this divers times, though we 
cannot as yet learn the certain number, but day after day 
we heard of his being carried to torments. Now true it is, 
and well known to many, that the man had a rupture in 
his belly, taken with excessive pains in his former labours ; 
and a man in that case is so unable to abide torments, that 
the civil law doth forbid to torture any man that is broken. 
He, therefore, being not only tortured, but that with so 
much extremity and so long continuance, it could not be 
otherwise but that his bowels should come out ; which, 
when they perceived, and minding as yet to continue that 
course with him, they girded his belly with a plate of iron 

1 " The beginnings of sorrows " (St. Matt. xxiv. 8). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 189 

to keep in his bowels, but the extremity of pain (which is 
most, in that kind of torment, about the breast and belly) 
did force out his guts, and so the iron did serve but to cut 
and wound his body, which, perhaps, did afterwards put 
them in mind to give it out that he had ripped his belly 
with a knife. Which, besides all the former reasons, is in 
itself improbable, if not impossible. For first, in that case, 
knives are not allowed, but only in time of meat, whilst 
one stands by, and those such as are broad at the point, 
and will only cut towards the midst. And if one be sore 
tortured (though much less than he was), he is not able to 
handle that knife neither for many days, but his keeper 
must cut his meat for him. But his particular case pro- 
ceeded yet further, for his weakness was such that when a 
kinswoman of his (to whom they sent for some relief for 
him) desired to see by his handwriting what he would have, 
his keeper answered, " What would you have him write ? 
He is not able to put on his own cap : no, not to feed 
himself, but I am forced to feed him." This man was likely, 
then, belike, to do such a deed with a knife which he was 
not able to grasp. But afterwards, the same party, seeking 
further to know his estate, and coming to the keeper to 
learn, as desirous to help him with anything that was 
needful, he secretly wished her to trouble herself no more, 
for, said he, " The man is dead, he died in our hands." 
This was known presently to divers Catholics, though 
reported in private, as it was spoken, for fear of further 
examination and trouble. For after they had published 
that he had killed himself, and seeing it was not believed, 
the only argument they had to give it credit was to 
commit those to prison that spake against it, of which 
there were divers examples to terrify others. " Sed Deus 
revelabit abscondita tenebrarum et manifestabit consilia 
cordium." 1 And of this great and worthy martyr there is no 

1 But Gocl "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will 
make manifest the counsels of the hearts :J (i Cor. iv. 5). 



190 A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 

question but many witnesses will one day be produced to 
the glory of God and His servant, and the safety of their 
own souls if ever they come to penance. In the meantime 
I desire my soul may have part with his, and myself may 
be assisted with his holy prayers. About whose life and 
death I have been the longer, to show how much the truth 
of his virtuous life and glorious death is contrary to the 
published slander. This happy soul suffering all this, only 
for his conscience and constant practice of charity, not 
being so much as accused of any other crime. 1 

1 Now I must set down their proceedings by course of law against the 
gentlemen that were the conspirators in the treason (of which I formerly 
treated), and this I will do in this chapter following. Erased in Orig. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OF THE ARRAIGNMENT, CONDEMNATION, AND EXECUTION 
OF THE CONSPIRATORS, WITH THE FULL CLEARING 
OF SOME OF THE SOCIETY FALSELY ACCUSED IN 
THIS ARRAIGNMENT. 

1 ABOUT this time was discovered unto the Council the 
place where Father Garnett was, insomuch as they gave 
present order for his apprehension, as I will declare in the 
next chapter ; but it could not be so soon effected as it 
was hoped and desired, so that in the meantime, although 
they were most desirous to defer the execution of the 
conspirators as long as might be, coveting to have found 
matter in Father Garnett whereby he might have been 
joined to them as a party at least, if not a principal 
contriver and author of their plot, yet finding his appre- 
hension not to be speedy, and having no proofs and there- 
fore weak hopes of proving him guilty, they could not well 
defer the trial of the conspirators so long time. There- 
fore upon the 2 of January, they were all carried from 
the Tower to Westminster Hall by water, being nine in 
number : vidlt., Sir Everard Digby, Knight, Mr. Robert 
Winter, Esquire, Mr. Ambrose Rokewood, Esquire, Mr. 
John Grant, Esquire, Mr. Thomas Winter, and Mr. John 
Winter, brothers unto Robert Winter, Mr. Guido Faulks, 

1 This great diligence and often iterated examinations of Father Garnett 
continued so long that it was almost the end of March before they could bring 
matters to that pass which hath been declared, and so that they might have any 
little show to prove the Father guilty against the laws of the realm for his only 
concealing of that which by the laws of God he could not reveal. Erased in 
Orig. 

2 The 27th.— Ed. 



192 A Narrative of 

Mr. Robert Keyes, and Thomas Bates, servant to Mr. 
Robert Catesby, of all which mention hath been made in 
the precedent chapters, sufficient both to declare the 
quality and conditions of each one of them, unto which I 
remit the careful reader, if he be desirous to renew his 
memory and to join the consideration of their life with the 
inspection of their death. 

Being brought to Westminster Hall before the Court 
was ready to sit, they were staid some half-hour in the 
Star Chamber, where in that little time of stay all men did 
note a great resolution in them, not seeming to fear or 
respect either judgment or death itself; nor showing any 
sign of sorrow for their attempt, in regard of their inten- 
tion thereby to have pulled down heresy and set up the 
Catholic religion. Their state of mind and manner of 
carriage may in part be discerned by that printed 
pamphlet, which was presently set forth, entitled A true 
report of the Imprisonment, A rraignment, and Death of the 
late Traitors, wherein although all their particular words 
and actions were of set purpose left out, which might 
sound to their commendation, and many words of con- 
tumely and disgrace heaped upon them and their religion 
also in the most odious manner that could be devised ; yet 
even that which is there set down of them did confirm 
very many in opinion that they thought themselves clear 
from offence to God in the matter, and that they were 
thereby made the more willing to suffer for the same cause. 
For there it is set down "that they spake little but in 
commendation of their conceited religion ; also, that they 
asked no mercy either of God or the King for their 
offence, but seemed as though in their conscience they 
thought the work to be meritorious ; also, that some did 
seem to enforce a stern look, as if they would fear death 
with a frown ; also, that they did only pray by the dozens 
upon their beads." Thus they scoff at the iteration of the 
Ave Maria and the set number of them which Catholics use 



the Gunpowder Plot. 193 

in saying their beads. But by all these it appears they were 
nothing daunted with that which they expected, but were 
well persuaded of their cause, although they knew it was 
and would be condemned by the world. All which I do 
the rather set down, as well for the verity of the story, as 
that all men may see how needful it is even for the best 
minds to follow counsel, although their intentions be never 
so direct ; seeing men of so excellent parts ran into so 
foul an error, and attempted so dangerous an enterprise 
against the whole State, by their own rash and heady 
courses, against the advice of their spiritual guides. For if 
they would have followed the advice of Father Garnett, 
they had never fallen into this grievous disorder. 

When the Court was set, they were all brought into the 
hall and placed upon the scaffold at the bar to answer to 
their indictments. And, first, their indictments were read, 
wherein, as the manner is, their whole designment was 
laid open, together with the names and number of the 
conspirators, and the beginning and prosecution of the 
whole Plot, in such order as hath been before declared 
out of their confessions, only now they intermixed 
many untruths devised of their own head against the 
Jesuits, accusing them without any instance of time or 
place, and without any proof or witness at all, not only as 
parties of the conspiracy, but as principal actors, yea, and 
authors of the whole Plot. And to this end they did name 
those three as principal, whom they had before put in the 
proclamation, vidlt., Garnett, Tesimond, 1 and Gerard ; yet 
always adding unto them " and other Jesuits," whereby it 
is apparent they meant by degrees to bring in the whole 
Company, having no proof against any, more than evil will 
suggested. For this was before they came to know that 
Father Garnett and Father Tesimond were acquainted with 
it in that secret manner that they could not reveal it, 2 at 

1 Greeneway. Erased in Orig. 

2 As in the last chapter hath been declared. Erased in Orig. 
N 



194 A Narrative of 

which time both they dissuaded it, and by all lawful means 
did labour to hinder it. But here both they and Father 
Gerard by name, and other also without name, were accused 
of it, who never had the least knowledge or imagination of 
such a matter. And yet to make the matter good against 
them, here they were accused in this indictment, where 
none of them were present to answer for themselves ; and 
were joined with the conspirators who were sure to be 
convicted and condemned of the fact, that the Jesuits might 
also seem to stand convicted and proved guilty with them ; 
and this not only as partners, but, as I have said, as princi- 
pal counsellors and causers of the whole treason. To which 
end they brought in in the indictment certain solemn 
meetings and consultations between the aforesaid three 
Jesuits 1 and the principal of these gentlemen, especially 
Catesby, Winter, Percy, Faulks, and Wright ; at which 
time these Jesuits (said the indictment) did persuade those 
gentlemen that the King being an heretic stood excom- 
municate, and therefore might be deposed, and finally 
persuaded them that there was no better way to effect 
that and restore Catholic religion than to blow up the 
Parliament House with gunpowder. All this was there 
fathered upon the Jesuits, whereof there was no one word 
true, as hath already and shall hereafter more apparently 
be showed. 

And first, the prisoners unto this indictment did all 
plead not guilty, which though it be an ordinary course for 
all to do, until they have answered for themselves what 
they can, and then be cast by the verdict of the jury, yet 
in their case it was thought strange ; they having all 
confessed the fact before in their several examinations. It 
was asked therefore afterwards of Mr. Guido Faulks, how 
he could plead not guilty, being so apparently taken in the 
place where the powder was laid up, and with matches and 
instruments about him for the purpose he intended, and 

1 And with divers others. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 195 

seeing that also he never denied the fact nor the intention ; 
but had confessed himself privy to the whole designment 
and of the most secret counsel from the beginning. It was 
much marvelled, therefore, how he amongst all the rest 
could plead not guilty ; unto which he answered that he 
granted all to be true which they now spake of himself; 
but that he pleaded not guilty to the indictment, in regard 
of the meetings and consultations there alleged between 
the Jesuits and them, of which he said he knew nothing 
nor ever heard of any such counsel or persuasion from 
them. Now unto this his speech, which did so clearly 
discharge the Jesuits from all the imposed crime, what 
answer, think you, was given ? Truly a very poor one. 
Forsooth, that all that was put in for form of law, because 
it must be presupposed. 

But must untruths be presupposed in the place of 
justice, where right and truth stand to be tried from 
faults and falsehood, as gold and brass distinguished 
by the touchstone ? And if some consultations must 
for form sake be set down before the acts themselves 
be said to be concluded of or commenced, yet must 
the innocent needs be thrust into the number and 
made the principals in the parley ? Let us suppose 
the indictment had been drawn by some lawyers that 
had been no good friends to the Chief Justice and 
Attorney and Solicitor there present, and that their 
three names had been put into the indictment instead 
of the three Jesuits there named, and the whole matter 
laid upon their counsel and persuasion ; would this have 
seemed to them to be just dealing and fit for the place of 
justice, only for that such consultations must be presup- 
posed ? Well, the time must come (and God knoweth 
how soon) when they and all that were the compilers 
of that indictment shall stand at the bar in a higher 
court, where their indictment will also be read, being 
already written by themselves in these their actions, 



196 A Narrative of 

"Eadem enim mensura, qua mensi fuerint, remetietur 
eis." 1 

But to proceed in the narration. When the indictment 
was read, and they all pleaded not guilty, then according 
to the custom in such cases, the King's Serjeant-at-Law 
(whose name was Sir Edward Philips) endeavoured to 
lay open the indictment that the cause of those that 
stood indicted might seem the more odious unto the 
The Attorney his Speech, jury and all the standers-by. After 
him Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney-General, began 
his speech, wherein first he laboured to excuse the long 
stay that had been made of that trial and arraignment of 
the conspirators, which he supposed many did marvel to 
see so long deferred, supposing the grievousness of their 
fact and the apparent evidence that was to be brought 
against them. For excuse whereof he alleged divers reasons 
which some of the standers-by thought very insufficient; as, 
namely, that Mr. Robert Winter and Mr. Stephen Littleton 
were not long before taken. But what if it had been some 
months after before they had been apprehended (as it might 
well have been if by accident they had not been discovered), 
should then the execution have been deferred until their 
taking ? Also he alleged, that if they had made more 
haste, they might have hanged Johnson instead of Faulks. 
But that had been a small matter, they being sure of the 
same man, and he of his punishment, which would have 
been neither greater nor less to him if he had received it 
by a wrong name. If Johnson and Faulks had been two 
several men, and then one hanged for the other, such a 
mistaking of the men or matter had been indeed an error, 
and to be prevented with some longer stay. But Mr. 
Attorney did not allege that which was the chief cause of 
this stay of execution, to wit, an earnest desire to have 
brought the Jesuits upon the stage if they could have 

1 For with the same measure with which they shall have meted, it shall be 
measured to them again. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 197 

been proved guilty, as they did their names into the indict- 
ment without any proof at all ; yea, contrary to the 
published examinations and the now public witness of the 
conspirators themselves, as there it appeared. Secondly, 
Mr. Attorney did seek to excuse himself to foreign Princes 
in that he was forced to produce their names in that odious 
action, which he said he would not otherwise have done, 
but that he was enforced thereunto by the confessions of 
the conspirators, which he was to urge against them, and 
said he, the names of foreign Princes were so woven into 
the matter by their confessions, that they could not 
conveniently be left out. In all which I must allow of 
Mr. Attorney his modesty and care not to offend so great 
persons, who, though they were named, yet in no sort 
accused by any of the conspirators. 

But here in defence of the innocent, we have cause to 
demand of Mr. Attorney why he was not also careful to 
forbear the offence of a much higher Majesty, that is, of 
God Himself, by accusing His servants wrongfully, without 
any cause at all given by them, or occasion offered by the 
confession of the conspirators, in which they were not so 
much as named ? Yet Mr. Attorney would needs enforce 
those meetings and consultations to be true which the 
indictment had mentioned, and which, you heard before, 
the conspirators disclaimed, and in respect thereof did all 
plead not guilty : although for their own part, they denied 
not the fact, nor the consultations which they had amongst 
themselves before they concluded of the matter. Mr. 
Father Gerard false accused Attorney, notwithstanding, would 
needs insist in the same disproved 
falsehood, and added thereunto another most egregious 
untruth, never so much as thought of by the party accused, 
as he hath often and most seriously protested to his 
private and confident friends, and once in my own hearing. 
The tale is this : that Father Gerard did give the oath of 
secrecy and perseverance in this treason unto the con- 



198 A Narrative of 

spirators, and then heard their confessions and ministered 
the Blessed Sacrament unto them. Than which a more 
false and pernicious slander could not be raised or reported 
of any man living, nor more contrary to his very natural 
disposition and known manner of proceeding, as all men 
will answer for him that are much conversant with him. 

But I would ask Mr. Attorney upon what ground he 
did raise and report this false surmise ? Did any one man 
ever accuse him of it, or could it be justly gathered by any 
little word or tittle of their confessions ? They are printed 
and published, and I have them now by me whilst I write 
this. I have often read them over, and my eyes are not of 
so quick a sight as to discern the least cause of surmise 
leading to any such matter. But perhaps Mr. Attorney 
had it by revelation. Certainly he neither had nor brought 
any proof at all of so foul an accusation, which had been 
requisite to a man of his place. And it had been well he 
would have considered for his own credit that which all 
men know, that if there had been any such thing confessed 
by the conspirators, without which he could never know it, 
infallibly it would have been set down in their confessions ; 
which I prove apparently by this reason : Mr. Attorney 
here affirmeth that he was forced to speak of other Princes, 
because their names were so intermixed or woven (as he 
termeth it) into their confessions, that he could not declare 
the one without the other. If then that which he saith he 
was so unwilling to speak of was publicly set down in their 
printed confessions, because they were annexed by the 
examinates to the discourse of their said confessions, how 
much more would this against a Jesuit have been left in 
(which here they charged him withal) 1 if any such thing 
had been true, or confessed for such by the conspirators ?' 
I hope Mr. Attorney will not say that he suppressed the 
matter for good-will unto him, and was more loth to have 
his name spoken of in so odious a cause than the names of 

1 And namely Fr. Gerard. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 199 

those Princes which he would so fain have concealed, but 
that he could not unweave their confessions so much, into 
which they were inserted. 

But if you will indeed know the true reason why this 
absurd fiction was not set down in their printed confes- 
sions, and yet was here averred by Mr. Attorney, you must 
understand that the author of that first relation and 
discourse of all this treason and of the course and pro- 
ceeding thereof (wherein the treason itself of gunpowder, 
the discovery thereof, the rebellion of the conspirators, 
their apprehension, and their confessions, were all published 
with all known, due, and true circumstances) was so careful 
of his authority and the credit of his narration, that he 
would not blemish the same with reporting any known 
untruth. And indeed the author was said to be of no less 
authority than the King himself; as it is easy to be 
gathered out of another book set forth soon after by the 
Earl of Salisbury, entitled An Answer to certain Scandalous 
Papers, in which, he saith, speaking of that discourse, 
"that every line discovered where Apelles' hand hath 
been." Now, on the other side, Mr. Attorney being not so 
sure a friend to truth, nor so careful of his own credit in 
that point, did not stick to allege this dream or device of 
his own for a true narrative, than which there never was a 
more foul untruth devised, the party accused being no more 
privy unto the giving or taking of any such oath, nor to 
any such plot or purpose in any one of the conspirators 
than the Attorney himself was, or whosoever doth think 
himself the furthest from it. And so it may appear 
that others of greater authority and judgment than Mr. 
Attorney were persuaded of him. For although when the 
matter first broke out the Council perhaps might have 
some suspicion that he was privy unto the Plot, in respect 
he was supposed to be acquainted with some of the 
gentlemen that were in the conspiracy, and thereupon his 
name put in the proclamation, yet after the conspirators 



200 A Narrative of 

were taken, and had been examined, and no proof at all 
found against him, or mention made of him in any of their 
confessions, it seems that the wisest, and those that had 
most to deal in the matter, did hold him free ; and there- 
fore neither the Earl of Salisbury nor of Northampton did 
produce any such accusation against him, although in their 
several speeches they had often occasion to mention that 
matter of the oath taken by the conspirators (which oath, 
as Mr. Winter directly saith in his confession, 1 was taken by 
themselves being alone and private in a chamber) : 2 for 
these be the words of Mr. Winter's confession related in 
the foresaid discourse of the whole treason set forth by 
His Majesty himself, as before hath been declared. 
" First," saith Mr. Thomas Winter, " Mr. Percy said unto 
Mr. Catesby and myself, ' Shall we always, gentlemen, 
talk and never do anything ? ' Then Mr. Catesby took 
him aside and had speech about somewhat to be done ; so 
as first we might all take an oath of secrecy, which we 
resolved within two or three days to do. So as there we 
met, Mr. Catesby, Mr. Percy, Mr. John Wright, Mr. Guy 
Faulks, and myself ; and having upon a Primer given each 
other the oath of secrecy in a chamber where no other 
body was, we went after into the next room and heard 
Mass and received the Blessed Sacrament upon the same. 
Then did Mr. Catesby disclose to Mr. Percy, and I together 
with Jack Wright tell to Mr. Faulks, the business for which 
we took this oath, which they both approved ; and then 
was Mr. Percy sent to take the house, where the mine was 
to be begun," &c. 

Here it is most apparent, that in this great business 

1 Related in that discourse set forth by His Majesty, as I said before, was 
concluded of amongst themselves and. Erased in Orig. 

2 And that after they went into another chamber to confess and to receive 
the Blessed Sacrament: so that it appears most evidently by His Majesty's 
own narration of the conspirators their confessions that Mr. Attorney did that 
public audience speak or deliver, &c. Erased in Orig. The following passage 
in the text from For these be the words to he doth not know are in the margin 
of the Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 201 

they consulted only with themselves ; they took the oath 
by themselves ; they imparted the matter amongst them- 
selves ; and assented unto it of themselves ; and did admit 
neither counsel, nor persuasion, nor presence of any other 
in talking of the same. As for their hearing Mass and 
receiving the Blessed Sacrament, who seeth not but that 
might be done, and the Priest not privy to the matter ? 
Whereof they made no scruple at all, as appears by their 
present receiving, but esteemed the case and cause meri- 
torious and not belonging to confession. And yet who 
that Priest was, I have heard Father Gerard protest upon 
his soul and salvation that he doth not know. This 
confession of Mr. Thomas Winter is likewise approved in 
the confession of Mr. Faulks related also in the same 
discourse of this late intended treason, and contradicted 
by none. But we must pardon Mr. Attorney this over- 
lashing in this his discourse, which seemed rather to be 
intended against the Jesuits, than to prove the prisoners 
guilty that were there present before him ; for it appeared 
by his words in divers places, that the chief mark he shot 
at was, like another Aman, to root out the whole Order of 
them, not out of England only, but out of the world, if he 
could ; for to that end he compared them with the Order 
of the Templars, which was suppressed by the See 
Apostolic. To that end it pleased him, out of his too 
great liberty of speech, to accuse them of teaching damned 
heresies, and besides, that they approve for lawful and 
meritorious the killing of Kings. In which last point, to 
show his good-will as well to the Head as to the members, 
he joined them with the Pope himself, affirming that Pope 
Sixtus V tlIS did not only allow of the fact of that Dominican 
who killed the King of France, but did highly commend 
the same in a public oration in his Consistory. No marvel 
therefore if Mr. Attorney did pass the bounds of justice in 
his reports of those three Jesuits, and had no regard of 
truth in that fiction of his own fathered upon Father Gerard 



202 A Narrative of 

in particular, sith he showed so great a malice against the 
whole Order in general, and was so bold as to accuse the 
Pope himself in that public place, contrary to the rule of 
modesty in his speech, which himself had before acknow- 
ledged to be needful ; and contrary to the counsel that is 
given in such cases, that at least his memory should be 
good, if his words were not true. But for the further 
convincing of that fiction, and full clearing of Father 
Gerard, I will afterwards briefly set down what course he 
held, to show his innocency both from that and all other 
participation in this treason. 

Now to proceed to Mr. Attorney his speech. He endea- 
voured to lay open the foulness of the treason intended, 
with all the parts and circumstances thereof; and showed 
how great harm and ruin might have come to the common- 
wealth by their rash and unnatural attempt. Yet for the 
persons of those that were the conspirators, whereof some 
were slain and most of them were present, he said, " though 
some reported them to be persons of mean account, yet," 
said he, " not to wrong them, they are gentlemen of good 
houses and of excellent parts, howsoever most perniciously 
seduced, corrupted, and Jesuited" (this was his phrase), "of 
very competent fortunes and estates ; " besides he named 
three that were of very noble houses. But the most of 
his speech was directly or indirectly still bent against the 
Jesuits, as the men most maligned by him, and that, in 
respect of their religion and the industry they use to 
promote the same, for other matter he had not there, which 
he could with any justice or truth allege against them. 

When it came to the prisoners' turn to answer for 
themselves, although they had pleaded not guilty, as 
I said before, that was partly in respect of those con- 
ferences between the Jesuits and them, which were not 
true and therefore by them denied ; partly also for that 
although they acknowledged the fact, yet they accounted 
themselves not guilty of any crime in the sight of God, 



the Gunpowder Plot. 203 

Whom they sought to serve and please in the action, and 
would not for any other respect have attempted it. To 

The speech of the prisoners this effect ailSWCred Mr. Robert 

at the bar. Winter and his brother Thomas, the 

elder of which, though he were known to be a man 
both wise and stout, yet he said but little in that 
place, as it is thought, for that he saw it was in vain 
to justify the action, and yet he would not condemn it, 
but showed a willing mind to suffer for the fact which 
he confessed. In like manner the younger brother, 
Thomas, though he were a man of very good discourse, 
and had delivered his mind at large before the Council 
about the whole matter, and that in so good order and 
with such resolution that he was much commended and 
pitied by them all, so far that the Earl of Salisbury said 
if his case were any other but for this Powder Treason, 
he would have saved his life ; yet now in this place he 
said little or nothing for himself, rather showing a con- 
tented, ready mind to suffer : only he asked mercy of 
the King for his brother, who was, as he said, drawn into 
the action by himself. It is not amiss to see what is 
said of them both by that pamphlet which was then by 
some base person published of their arraignment and 
execution ; for that being written in as disgraceful manner 
of them as could be devised, it is the surer witness of 
anything that may be well interpreted of their mind. 
Of the elder he hath this, that he said little, but had a 
guilty conscience, that he swallowed and concealed his 
grief and made little show of sorrow for that time. Of 
the younger, he saith that he thought himself already 
half a saint for his whole villainy, that he said little that 
either made show of sorrow or sought mercy, but only 
made a request to the King for his brother, &c. By which 
relation set down to their disgrace, it may appear what 
opinion they had of the attempt itself and of their present 
state of mind in regard of their intention in the former. 



204 A Narrative of 

Mr. Rookwood spake more at large, declaring how- 
he had ever been brought up in the Catholic religion, 
and taught to fear God from his infancy; that he was 
the rather induced to attempt this enterprise, as thinking 
it the only likely means to restore the Catholic religion ; 
that his friendship also and love to Mr. Catesby was 
such as moved him the sooner to follow his counsel and 
example : he requested, withal, favour for his wife and 
children. Of him the aforesaid book hath these words, 
" That he would fain have made his bringing up and 
breeding in idolatry to have been some excuse to his 
villainy ; but a fair tale could not help a foul deed." 
So he. 

Of Mr. Grant the book hath this. " Grant, stubborn 
in his idolatry, nothing penitent for his villainy, asked 
little mercy; but, as it were, careless of grace, received 
the doom of his desert." In which words one may 
sufficiently see the state of the man's mind to be answer- 
able to the description in the * chapter, though in 
other language here expressed, where the Catholic religion 
is, as you see, esteemed and called idolatry. 

The youngest brother of the three Winters did speak 
little, but only that he did not begin nor assist to the 
Plot of Powder, but was after drawn in by the example 
and persuasion of his brother. 

Mr. Faulks did show a mind answerable to his former 
proceedings, and gave that reason for his pleading not 
guilty which I set down before in this chapter : for his 
own part freely and willingly acknowledging the fact, for 
which he was ready to suffer. 

Mr. Keyes did speak but few words, but such as did 
make show of great spirit. He affirmed that the perse- 
cution was such before they undertook this business, and 
himself had his goods seized with such violence, that to 
live in such misery seemed worse than death, and therefore 
1 The sixth.— Ed. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 205 

to free both himself and others, he was glad of this 
occasion. 

Bates, being the last of the eight which were all 
included in one indictment, and being but a serving-man, 
showed more servile fear both now and at his death 
than any of them all, answerable perhaps to the motives 
that made him first to undertake it, which being most 
like to be the love to his master, or some such human 
respect, so now he showed most sense in foregoing that 
which it seems before he had most respected. 

Last of all was read a particular indictment of Sir 
Everard Digby, of which he stood indicted and convicted 
already in the country in the county of Northampton, where 
the matter was imparted unto him by Mr. Robert Catesby, 
and where he gave his consent with promise to provide 
1,500/. in money, with horses and other furniture fit for 
assistance and prosecution of the enterprise, as he himself 
had formerly confessed and now again acknowledged at 
the bar. Therefore when his indictment was read to this 
effect, and he required to speak what he would in his 
own defence, he answered that he could not deny the 
fact nor would defend it, but that he must needs defend 
his intention, which was to please God and profit others 
by the action ; that his motives were neither for ambition 
and desire of worldly preferment, nor discontentment of 
his worldly estate, which it was well known he had no 
cause to mislike, nor yet was he moved thereunto by 
malice or ill-will against any particular person ; but that 
his motives were these. First, that which moved him to 
listen and to trust and to conceal the matter being opened 
unto him, was his love to Mr. Catesby, for whose love 
and friendship he would have adventured his estates and 
fortunes. But another greater reason which moved him 
indeed to enter into the action was the relief of Catholics, 
for whom he saw no other remedy, seeing that the King, 
he said, had broken his word and promise of giving relief 



206 A Narrative of 

unto them, at least by toleration ; which promise, said he, 
they received from him by divers messages; and whereof 
now there was no hope at all, but rather that they did 
all expect and see a preparation to make other laws in 
that Parliament more strict than the former, and that 
they had to that end packed all the Puritans together, 
which was the cause that moved them the rather to 
attempt that matter . against the Parliament House. But 
the chiefest motive he said was the cause of religion, 
which alone, said he, seeing it lay at the stake, in that 
behalf he neglected his estate, his life, his name, his 
memory, yea, and his posterity and all the world and what- 
soever the world could afford him. These were his words 
as near as they could be taken, which were noted by very 
many, and he exceedingly pitied even by many of those 
that were enemies to his religion, in which he showed so 
great a resolution and zeal, with so great estimation 
thereof and contempt of himself in regard thereof, which 
many of the hearers did so generally commend and so 
publicly affirm that they could never forget it, he being 
known to have enjoyed and that he might still have 
enjoyed as much worldly contentment as any man of his 
estate in England. After this he made some petitions unto 
the King and Council, that whereas his fault against the 
State had passed no further than himself, he neither 
having drawn others into the action nor performed any- 
thing to the hurt of others, therefore he desired in like 
manner that his punishment might be extended no further 
but to himself, and so that his wife and children might 
neither of them sustain loss, but the one enjoy her jointure, 
the other his lands, so far as they were entailed upon 
them in law before this matter was thought of. Also 
that his debts might be discharged out of his estate ; and 
for himself he craved no other favour but that, if it pleased 
the King, he might be beheaded instead of hanging. 
Lastly, whereas he had noted in the indictment and in 



the Gunpowder Plot. 207 

Mr. Attorney his speech, divers of the Fathers of the 
Society to be accused as principal counsellors and per- 
suaders unto this enterprise, he there protested that in 
his conscience he thought them all clear. And in 
particular for Father Gerard he could best testify, being 
best acquainted with him, and therefore was bound in 
conscience to set down his knowledge that " he was wholly 
innocent and did never so much as know of the matter, 
yea (said he), I never durst tell him of it, for fear he 
would have drawn me out of it." This was his testimony 
and protestation in that public place, being ready to 
receive the sentence of death ; which he was likewise 
beginning to iterate again at the time of his death, but 
that he was interrupted. Now concerning this matter, 
if it were not for staying the reader too long from the 
story itself, I could here set down certain letters sent 
unto the Council by Father Gerard at this very time, 
which would make it apparent that he never knew of the 
conspiracy until all England knew it. But for that this 
chapter will grow too long, I will only set down the 
course he took to clear himself and the contents of the 
letters in few words, though I have now the copies by me 
procured of purpose to have been set down in this place. 

I made mention before in the 1 chapter how 

Father Gerard, before the proclamation came out, seeing 
himself to be searched for as guilty of this conspiracy, 
did write a long letter of protestation that he was wholly 
innocent and had not the least knowledge of the matter. 
This letter was seen to divers and even to the King 
himself, as hath been said, and gave good satisfaction. 
But notwithstanding this, some heavy friends of his (to 
whom he never gave any cause of offence) procured a 
proclamation to be set forth against him and two others 
of the Society, as hath been said ; which when he perceived, 
and knowing very well that there was no proof at all which 

1 The ninth.— Ed. 



208 A Narrative of 

was or could be brought forth against him, he presently 
wrote four letters and sent them to London, three of 
which were to three of the chiefest of the Council and one 
to Sir Everard Digby, then prisoner in the Tower. The 
letters to the Council were to the Duke of Lenox, the 
Earl of Northampton, and the Earl of Salisbury ; in all 
which he did humbly and instantly require, that whereas 
he was accused of so great a crime, in which he was not 
partaker in the least degree, nor ever in any sort made 
privy unto it, that it would please them for God's cause 
and for their love to equity, to show him so much justice 
as to afford him such trial as might be made of his 
innocency ; whereof he proposed in those letters, two 
kinds, the one affirmative, the other negative. The one 
was that the letter to Sir Everard Digby, which was sent 
enclosed in theirs and unsealed might be delivered in 
their presence, and he examined upon the points thereof, 
containing a discourse between him and Father Gerard 
but three days before the Plot of Powder was publicly 
discovered, by which discourse (if any such discourse were 
then between them) it was most apparent that Father 
Gerard knew nothing in the world of the conspiracy. 
And of the verity of that discourse, the Council might 
by that letter make full trial, in which the time and 
place and words that passed between them were expressly 
set down, all which, if Sir Everard Digby did not affirm 
and agree with his letter, he would grant they had some 
proof against him. The trial by negatives which he 
required was this : that it would please them to cause 
all the conspirators at the hour of their death to be 
publicly examined, whether ever any of them had im- 
parted the matter unto him, or would but say upon their 
conscience that he had the least knowledge thereof, either 
by them or any other means. And if they did not all 
of them deny it (being urged, as they would answer the 
Highest Judge, to speak the sincere truth), he would then 



tlie Gunpowder Plot. 209 

yield they had some proof against him, so that the parties 
that should so accuse him did it not in hope of pardon, but 
did certainly know they should die and did make show 
to die in the fear of God and hope of their salvation. 

These two ways of trial were proposed and most 
earnestly requested by Father Gerard in those his letters, 
which were as sufficient to try the truth of the matter 
(all circumstances considered) as any could be wished. 
And these letters were sent in such time to London, as 
that they certainly came to the Council's hands that very 
day of the arraignment of the conspirators ; so that there 
was time enough to have had both kinds of trial made 
which he required, and in equity and justice might require. 

But neither of them were performed. And it is thought 
generally that they were forborne, because it was suffi- 
ciently known beforehand that thereby he would be proved 
clear, whereof the Council were before that persuaded ; 
but that they were willing to have the proclamation go 
forward against him, as against the rest, to hinder him 
thereby from conversion of souls and drawing many from 
them to the Catholic faith, and that of the better sort, 
with whom his conversation and practice was for the 
most part ; which made them so desirous to take him 
by means of the proclamation, even after they knew he 
was not guilty of this treason whereof he was accused. 

And see the providence of God. That Sir Everard 
Digby, knowing nothing at all of this Father's demand of 
trial by his testimony, yet hearing him so wrongfully accused 
in the process against them, he did of his own accord there 
publicly protest his knowledge of the Father's innocency, 
yea, and of his inclination also against such practices, 
which was more than the Father desired in his letters 
should be demanded. Now, because these trials were not 
made which Father Gerard so earnestly requested, he 
therefore, before his going out of England, did publish 
these letters to some of his friends, that the world might 




210 A Narrative of 

see how clear he was, and what equal and full trial he 
offered to show his innocency. 

Now, whereas it was reported that Bates had accused 
Father Gerard, and that, upon his accusation Father 
Gerard was put in the proclamation with the others, that is 
also apparently disproved by Bates his own letter, written 
a day or two before his arraignment, and sent unto a Priest 
his last ghostly Father, who did help him with the Sacra- 
ments after his examinations and some weakness showed 
in them, as may appear also by his letter, whereof the 
original is kept under his own hand, and may be seen to 
be the same handwriting which is annexed unto his exami- 
nations themselves. The true copy is this : 

" Sir, I humbly thank you for your great comfort and 
pains taken for me. I praise God I find myself more 
stronger to resist, and do hope shall more and more. Sir, 
when I was at Hobadge House, where my master was 
slain, that morning at my going away from him, by 
reason of the misfortune that fell amongst us by powder, 
Mr. Christopher Wright flung me out of a window an^ 
ioo/., and desired me, as I was a Catholic, to give unto 
his wife and his brother's wife 80/., and take 20/. myself. 
I took out by guess some 22/., as I think, and left it with a 
friend of mine, and desired him, if I did miscarry in this 
action, he should bestow it amongst my children. Now, I 
would entreat you to give my fellow George instructions 
what to do in it. I refer it to you. Mr. Wright had of 
me at times, in money and kine, as much as came to some 
28/., but my master told me he would pay me, but he did 
not. Now whether my wife may take that money out of 
that I refer to you. Also, further, I have dealt with my 
keeper to deal with the Clerk of the Council for my 
pardon, and have promised an 100/. if it may be had, 
which I made account that money should have served 
that turn ; but I am out of all hope for that, unless it be 



the Gunpowder Plot. 211 

God's will to deliver me. This morning I was sent for down, 
and there was a fellow ready with a new suit of fustian, and 
my keeper made me to essay it, and neither said it was for 
me nor anything, but I know it was provided for me. 
The meaning I know not. And before that my Lord of 
Salisbury asked me what I wanted, and caused the keeper 
to buy me a new gown, and bade him use me extraordinary 
well. All this makes me full of doubts, for I fear it is but 
to serve their own turns of me and then to hang me. Is it 
not best for me, if the clothes be offered me, to refuse them ? 
I pray you resolve me in that, for I have a purpose to tell 
the keeper, ' I have clothes good enough to serve me as long 
as I live, I fear, and therefore will none.' I beseech you to 
send me word what your opinion is in these things being 
offered me. At my last being before them I told them I 
thought Mr. Greenway knew of this business, but I did not 
charge the others with it, but that I saw them all together 
with my master at my Lord Vaux's, and that after I saw 
Mr. Walley and Mr. Greenway at Coughton, and it is true. 
For I was sent thither with a letter, and Mr. Greenway rode 
with me to Mr. Winter's to my master, and from thence he 
rode to Mr. Abington's. This I told them and no more. For 
which I am heartily sorry for, and I trust God will forgive 
me, for I did it not out of malice but in hope to gain my 
life by it, which I think now did me no good. Thus 
desiring your daily prayers I commit you to God." 

This is the true copy of his letter, by which it appears 
that a man so weak and so ignorant, as here he showeth 
himself to be, might easily be wrought upon, especially by 
those means that here he expresseth were used to him ; 
and that such an one to save his life would strain his 
conscience far, as indeed he did when he saith that he saw 
those three at my Lord Vaux's ; for in truth he did not, 
nor saw Father Gerard of a year or two before ; but if he 
had seen him in that place at that time, yet that had been 



212 A Narrative of 

no accusation of this treason (as is sufficiently proved in 
the 1 chapter where the same matter is handled) ; and 
as himself directly saith in this letter, that he did not 
accuse him at all, nor Father Walley, nor the other neither 
of knowledge ; but only that he thought he knew of the 
business : whereby it appears that it is not true, which was 
afterwards affirmed in Father Garnett's arraignment that 
Bates had told Mr. Greenway of the matter in confession. 
And this Bates being the only one of the conspirators of 
whom it was reported that he had accused Father Gerard, 
which here in plain words you see himself doth say he did 
not, it remains apparent that never any did accuse him. 
And this letter under Bates his own hand being haply 
brought to Father Gerard a little before his departure out 
of England, 2 he did annex the true copy of the same unto 
the letters before mentioned, which he had sent unto the 
Council, and sent them unto a friend to be published by 
him after his departure ; and of them all there be divers 
copies taken, of which myself have one, in which there is 
this clause amongst others for his clearing, which methinks 
doth offer enough, if reason may be accepted and the promise 
there alleged performed. After he had offered and humbly 
desired of the Council two sufficient kinds of trial of his 
cause before specified, seeing that neither of them were 
performed, in his letter wherewith he published those offers 
made, he citeth a sentence out of my Lord of Salisbury his 
book then newly come forth, wherein the Earl declared his 
mind to be no ways bent to seek the blood of any but 
such as had themselves laboured to seek the blood of 
others, saying that he only desired, " Necis artifices arte 
perire sua." 3 This sentence (worthy indeed the pen and 
practice of a Councillor in so eminent authority 4 ) Father 

1 The ninth.— Ed. 

2 When he meant to publish those foresaid letters he had sent unto the 
Council, and did withal. Erased in Orig. 

3 That the craftsmen of death should perish by their own craft. 

4 As the Earl of Salisbury now is placed in. Erased i?i Orig. 



the Gtmpowder Plot. 2 1 ^ 



o 



Gerard desired should be made the rule or square whereby 
the line of his accusation might be straitened ; and offered 
that if it could be duly proved, that ever, either in this 
most unnatural treason or in any other action, he had 
wrought or sought the death of any man, let him then 
be punished with as cruel a death as wit of man could 
devise, and find no eye nor heart to pity him. This was his 
offer, and then he addeth further : " But if," saith he, 
"neither this can be proved nor any proofs of my inno- 
cency (whereof there be divers produced for me and none 
against me) may be in. my case admitted, but that I must 
remain, &c, yet I would not the world should think it 
doth or can bereave me of that quiet and contentment 
of mind, which I have in the confident expectation of 
God's protection and favour ; " and so he goeth forward, 
laying down sufficient reasons for both to the full satis- 
faction of the reader, both of his innocency touching this 
accusation and of his willing acceptance of God's blessed 
will and disposition. 

Now to return unto Sir Everard Digby. After he had 
ended his speech with the foresaid protestation, 1 that he 
thought assuredly all the Fathers were innocent of this 
treason, and that he knew for certain that Father Gerard had 
not so much as any knowledge at all thereof, then the Earl 
of Northampton made a speech, which he chiefly directed 
to Sir Everard Digby in answer of that point, especially 
where Sir Everard urged the King's promise for toleration. 
And, first, the Earl said that, if he could lament any man 
upon earth in that case, he could pity him in respect of his 
worth many ways, and the good opinion he had formerly 
conceived of him. He witnessed also that Queen Eliza- 
beth esteemed him much, and, to his own knowledge, 
had spoken of Sir Everard with great grace. Then, after 
a sufficient discourse, proving by sound reasons the 
foulness of this treason, his Lordship came to that 
3 Of his knowledge touching Father Gerard his innocency. Erased in Orig. 



214 A Narrative of 

promise of the King, which there he utterly denied, and 
proved it by Watson his confession before his death, who 
had been a chief man to divulge the same before. And 
that Watson affirmed likewise, he had given out such 
hopes before contrary to his knowledge, only to move 
Catholics to a willing acceptance of the King. All which, 
though we admit as true, being affirmed by the Earl as 
spoken to himself, yet Catholics are not thereby persuaded 
that Watson received no such hopes from His Majesty 
when he kneeled before him in Scotland. For they think it 
much more likely that Watson, being in this peril of death 
and in the power of the Council, would misreport his 
former persuasion of mind and the cause thereof, thereby 
to please the more, and by pleasing to obtain favour, which 
divers of his other words at that time, related also in this 
speech, did plainly show he did both desire and hope for. 
Whereas, when he returned out of Scotland he had no such 
cause to dissemble, and to relate such assured promises to 
so many Catholics, as it is known he did, if himself had 
been out of hope thereof ; yea, and that he did not therein 
dissemble his sequent actions did apparently prove. For 
he was the first man that laboured to persuade Catholics 
to take arms against His Majesty, as hath been declared 
before (though, thanks be to God, he could prevail but with 
a very few therein), which, happening within the first year, it 
appears he ran that contrary course so soon as he had the 
contrary opinion ; which, if he had brought with him out 
of Scotland (as he affirmed to the Earl of Northampton in 
the time of his imprisonment), then had it been more easy 
for him to have persuaded Catholics there was no hope to 
be had, and so to have kept him out, than after he had 
assured them the contrary, and the King was settled in 
his throne, then to persuade them thereunto, which then 
was much more difficult and unlikely. And, therefore, 
nothing likely he would first have been so forward to plant 
that tree, which so soon after himself did first endeavour to 



the Gunpowder Plot. 215 

cut down, and that with hazard and loss of his life, unless 
he had first expected other fruit than afterwards he found. 
But Watson's reports were not the greatest grounds that 
Catholics did build their hopes upon. Divers men, his 
betters much, did affirm the same, whose words were more 
esteemed than either Watson's or Percy's in that cause. It 
was not the least part of needful policy that such a conceit 
should run for current in the minds of Catholics generally, 
and such hopes to be thought likely at that time by whom- 
soever they were given out, which I will not here dispute ; 
for that persuasion, no doubt, did strengthen much the 
Catholics' mind, which was found so ready to receive their 
King with all peace and comfort. And I make no question 
but if it pleased His Majesty to perform as much as then 
was hoped, it would prove no less profitable in all respects 
unto the stability of peace and happiness than pleasing to 
the receivers, in regard of their ease and mitigation of their 
afflictions. 

Unto the speech of Sir Everard Digby the Earl of 
Salisbury did likewise answer in defence of the King's 
word, esteeming that Sir Everard did seem to tax His 
Majesty with breach of promise, which many think was 
not the intention of the prisoner, but only to show that, 
such general hopes being conceived upon some likely 
ground as they presumed, and now seeing all hopes to 
fail, they were the more easily induced to run this other 
course for the redress of their own miseries. And so, 
against the likelihood of these hopes, the Earl's speech 
did prove fully that the King had always professed the 
contrary religion most earnestly, and that His Majesty was 
so far from giving hope of toleration that he would not 
endure the least motion thereof to be proposed. And yet 
the Earl in the same speech declared how His Majesty 
had dealt favourably with divers principal Catholic 
gentlemen who were sent for to the Court in the time of 
Watson his treason before mentioned ; at which time 



216 A Narrative of 

finding them free from having their hands in any treason 
(said the Earl) they were dismissed with encouragement to 
persist in their dutiful carriage, and that the payments for 
not going to Church should be forgiven them in respect of 
their so much loyalty showed at the King's entry, and for 
that they had afterwards kept themselves so free. 1 In this 
speech the Earl of Salisbury did show great zeal to defend 
His Majesty from the least touch of breach of his promise, 
and therein to disprove that which he thought would be 
conceived of Sir Everard Digby's words. And though 
otherwise he acknowledged Sir Everard to be his alliance 
by marriage, yet it is thought that in regard chiefly of this 
his speech, he had not his petition granted of being 
beheaded, but was with all the rest adjudged presently to 
be hanged, drawn, and quartered, according to the ordinary 
form of judgment in case of high treason. So then, having 
received the sentence of death, they were all returned to 
their prisons until Thursday and Friday following, which 
were the days of their execution ; only Mr. John Winter 
(being the youngest of the three brothers) was not then 
put to death, but carried after into the country and 
suffered at Worcester, as shall afterward be declared. 

On Thursday, therefore, being the 30th of January, four 
of the eight were drawn upon sledges and hurdles from the 
Tower to St. Paul's Churchyard, where they were to 
suffer, vidlt.y Sir Everard Digby, Mr. Robert Winter, Mr. 
John Graunt, and Bates. And being arrived there, 
first Sir Everard Digby was taken off the hurdle and led 
up to the scaffold, of whom the pamphlet before alleged 
set forth of their judgment and death as much to disgrace 
them as might be, yet hath these words, " First went 

sir Everard Digby U P Di g b y> a man of a goodly personage 
h ls death. anc j a man iy aspect. He enforced himself 

to speak as stoutly as he could ; his speech was not 

1 This clause may be omitted in this place, and serve better to be alleged in 
the last chapter. Orig. in marg. 



the Gtmpowder Plot. 217 

long and to little good purpose, only that his belied 
conscience (being but indeed a blinded conceit) had 
led him into this offence, which, in respect of his 
religion (alias indeed idolatry), he held no offence, but, in 
respect of the law, he held an offence, for which he asked 
forgiveness ; and so, with vain and superstitious crossing 
of himself, betook him to his Latin prayers, mumbling to 
himself, refusing to have any prayers of any but of the 
Romish Catholics, went up the ladder." Thus he. By 
which relation, though set down with much ill-will against 
him and his religion, yet it is easy to see thereby what 
state of mind he died in. The truth is he gave great 
satisfaction to all the standers-by. 1 When he was first 
brought up to the scaffold, after he had commended 
himself to God, being wished, as the custom is, to 
acknowledge his treason for which he died, he did accord- 
ingly acknowledge the fact intended according to his 
judgment, but withal he declared that his motives were no 
evil will to any, nor any love to himself for worldly 
respects, but the ending of persecution of Catholics, the 
good of souls, and the cause of religion. In which regard he 
could not condemn himself of any offence to God, though 
he granted he had offended the laws of the realm, for 
which he asked their pardon, and was willing to suffer 
death, and thought nothing too much to suffer for those 
respects which had moved him to that enterprise. The 
preachers standing by, as the fashion is, did move him 
to pray with them. He absolutely refused, and desired 
the assistance and prayers of all good Catholics, himself 
fell to his prayers with such devotion as much moved all 
the beholders. And when he had done, he stood up and 
saluted all the noblemen and gentlemen that stood upon 
the scaffold, every one according to his estate, to the 

1 Who returned from the execution full of pity towards so worthy a man, 
yea, so full of admiration of his fortitude and great opinion of his devotion that 
they could talk almost of nothing else all that day. Erased in Orig. 



218 A Narrative of 

noblemen with a lower conge, to others with more show of 
equality, but to all in so friendly and so cheerful a manner, 
as they afterwards said, he seemed so free from fear of death 
as that he showed no feeling at all of any passion therein, 
but took his leave of them as he was wont to do when he 
went from the Court or out of the city to his own house 
in the country ; yet withal he showed so great devotion of 
mind, so much fervour and humility in his prayers, and so 
great confidence in God, as that very many said 1 they made 
no doubt but his soul was happy, and wished themselves 
might die in the like state of mind. He was no sooner turned 
off the ladder but very speedily cut down, and that with 
such haste as that he fell upon his face, and so somewhat 
bruised his forehead, yet, though he could not be dead, he 
made no resistance at the block whilst he was in quartering; 
and after his bowels and heart were cast into the fire, and 
his head cut off, the hangman holding it up as is usual to 
do, it was noted that there was no alteration at all in 
his countenance, but had the same man-like and comely 
aspect he had before his death. 

After him went up Mr. Robert Winter, of whom the 
foresaid pamphlet hath this, "After him went Winter up 

Mr. Robert winter to the scaffold, where he used few words to 
his death. an y g OOC j effect; without asking mercy 
either of God or the King for his offence, went up the 
ladder, and making a few prayers to himself, staid not long 
for his execution." By which words it may appear that Mr. 
Winter died much in the like mind and manner as the 
other gentleman before him. He was esteemed in his life 
to be one of the wisest and most resolute and sufficient 
gentlemen in Worcestershire, where he dwelt, as formerly 
hath been declared. 

After him went up Mr. Graunt, who showed extraordi- 

Mr. Graunt. nary zeal, as it may appear by the foresaid book, 
which saith "that he, being abominably blinded with his 

1 Here wants something. In another hand, erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 219 

idolatry, though he confessed his offence to be heinous, yet 
would fain have excused it by his conscience and religion. 
He having used a few idle words to ill effect, was, as his 
fellows before him, led the way to the halter, and so, after 
his crossing of himself, to the last part of his tragedy." 
Whereby it appears he alleged the same reasons and died 
with the same resolution the former had done. 

Last of them was Bates, of whom the book saith " that 
Bates, he seemed sorry for his offence, and asked forgive- 
ness of God and the King and of the whole kingdom, 
prayed to God for the preservation of them all ; and, as he 
said, only for his love to his master (Mr. Robert Catesby) 
drawn to forget his duty to God, his King, and country." 
These words which Bates spake at his death, and the mind 
he showed, declare sufficiently what hath been said of him 
before ; and his motives being but human respects (as here 
he acknowledgeth), no marvel though he had showed less 
store of grace and assistance thereof both before and at 
his death. But seeing he showed to die penitent for his 
fact, it is to be hoped he found mercy at God's hands. 
Thus ended the execution of this day. And many of the 
beholders returned full of pity and compassion towards so 
worthy-minded men as the first three were, especially Sir 
Everard Digby, whose fortitude of mind they did so much 
admire, and had so great opinion of his devotion that for 
all that day and some time after they could talk almost 
of nothing else. 

The next day, being Friday, were drawn from the 
Tower to the Old Palace in Westminster over against the 
Parliament House, Mr. Thomas Winter, the second brother 
of the Winters, Mr. Ambrose Rookwood, Mr. Robert Keyes, 
and Mr. Guy Faulks. By the way, as they were drawn 
upon the Strand, Mr. Rookwood had provided that he 
should be admonished when he came over against the 
lodging where his wife lay ; and being come unto the 
place, he opened his eyes (which before he kept shut to 



220 A Narrative of 

attend better to his prayers), and seeing her stand in a 
window to see him pass by, he raised himself as well as he 
could up from the hurdle, and said aloud unto her : " Pray 
for me, pray for me." She answered him also aloud : " I 
will ; and be of good courage and offer thyself wholly to 
God. I, for my part, do as freely restore thee to God as 
He gave thee unto me." 

Mr. Thomas winter his death. Being all come to the place of 
execution, first Mr. Thomas Winter was led to the 
scaffold, as the principal in the business, who was from 
the first acquainted therewith, and a chief actor therein. 
Of him the book saith that "he seemed after a sort 
as it were sorry for his offence, and yet crossed himself," 
saith he, " as though those were sufficient wards against 
the devil ; that he protested to die a true Catholic, and 
so went up the ladder." Truth is, Mr. Thomas Winter 
spake not much at his execution, seeming more willing 
to prepare himself for death ; whereat some of the 
standers-by marvelling, who knew him to be a wise 
and well-spoken man, seemed desirous to have him 
speak at large. But he answered he had spoken at large 
unto the Council concerning all their intentions and the 
causes that moved them to that enterprise, and he hoped 
he had given satisfaction in the whole ; that this was no 
time to discourse ; he was come to die, wherein he desired 
the prayers and assistance of all good Catholics. Only this 
he said in particular, that whereas divers of the Fathers of 
the Society were accused of counselling and furthering 
them in this treason, he could clear them all, and par- 
ticularly Father Tesimond, from all fault and participation 
therein. And indeed Mr. Thomas Winter might best clear 
that good Father, with whom he was best acquainted, and 
knew very well how far he was from counselling or plotting 
that business. For himself, having first told the Father of 
it (as I have heard), long after the thing was ready, and 
that in such secret as he might not utter it, but with his 



the Gunpowder Plot, 221 

leave, unto his Superior only, the Father, both then and 
after, did so earnestly persuade him, and by him the rest, 
to leave off that course (as his duty was), that Mr. Winter 
might well find himself bound in conscience to clear this 
Father from his wrongful accusation of being a counseller 
and furtherer of the Plot. 1 

Mr. Rookwood his death. Next him came Mr. Rookwood, who 
made a speech of some longer time, acknowledged and asked 
forgiveness for his offence to His Majesty and the State. 
He prayed earnestly for the King and Queen and all their 
children, and wished them long life and a happy reign, and 
last of all (which, the foresaid book saith, was to mar all the 
pottage with one filthy weed) he prayed God to make the 
King a Catholic. And so, desiring favour for his wife 
and children, protesting, saith the book, to die in his 
idolatry, a Romish Catholic, he went up the ladder, and 
hanging until he was almost dead, was drawn to the block, 
where he gave his last gasp. The devotion and resolute 
mind of this gentleman was very well known to many, and 
he was very much pitied, as he had been much beloved. 

After him came Mr. Keyes, of whom the book saith 
thus : " That he, like a desperate villain, used little speech, 
showed small or no sign of repentance, went up the ladder 
stoutly, where, not staying the hangman's turn, turned 
himself off, and with the swing broke the halter, but after 
his fall was quickly drawn to the block and there divided 
into four parts." But he did not, as here it is said, leap 
down of himself, but when he thought himself ready he 
showed his ready mind to go off the ladder without force, 
lest the hangman should take him on a sudden, when his 
mind was not actually upon it, and so be cause of some 
little reluctation. 

Last of all Mr. Faulks was led to the scaffold, of whom 
the book hath this : " That his body being weak with 

1 This sentence in the original is underlined, and marked with crosses in 
the margin. 



222 A Narrative of 

torture and sickness he was scarce able to go up the 
ladder ; also that he made no long speech, but after a 
sort seeming to be sorry for his offence, asked a kind of 
forgiveness of the King and the State for his bloody- 
intent, and, with his crosses and idle ceremonies, made his 
end upon the gallows and the block." Thus saith the 
author of that pamphlet, and where he said that Mr. 
Faulks seemed to be sorry after a sort, and asked a kind 
of forgiveness, he maketh it apparent that he did as his 
fellows had done, acknowledge their intended action to 
be displeasing to the King and State, whose favour they 
desired, and therefore in that respect asked them forgive- 
ness; but that they did not hold it for an offence to God in 
respect of their intention to please Him and serve Him in 
the whole, as thinking when they began the action and 
professing when they ended their life that there was no 
other likely means to restore religion in England. And 
would to God herein they had been as well advised as they 
were absolute to believe and follow their own advice. Then 
had they neither hurt themselves nor others by this rash 
and heady enterprise, most unfit for subjects to undertake 
against their Prince and country, especially all attempts 
being so forbidden by His Holiness as they were, and so 
often and earnestly dissuaded by the Fathers of the 
Society, as hath been declared. And yet it is strange to 
see how impudently that heretical pamphlet which I have 
cited before so often of their arraignment and death 
(set forth by one T.W., I know not who), doth rail first at 
the Pope himself and then against all Jesuits and Priests, 
as against the authors and plotters of this business. For 
he saith : " Thus I have ended my discourse of the 
arraignment and execution of these eight traitors." Then 
a little after he prosecuteth in this manner : " Was there 
ever seen such a hellish Plot since the betraying of the 
Lord of Heaven ? If the Pope were not a very devil, and 
these Jesuits, or rather Jebusites and satanical seminaries, 



the Gunpowder Plot. 223 

very spirits of wickedness, that whisper in the ears of 
Evahs to bring a world of Adams to destruction, how 
could nature be senseless or reason so graceless," &c. So 
he proceedeth. inveighing against His Holiness and religion, 
and all that he imagined did favour or further the same 
religion in any great measure. 

But silence is the best answer to such witless and wilful 
assertions, uttered against the truth so many ways mani- 
festly proved. But this fellow, and such as he is, will rather 
"impugnare agnitam veritatem" 1 than omit any opportu- 
nity to revile against the Pope and those that most do stand 
for his authority ; which is no news for poor Catholics in 
England to hear of daily to their grief, long before this 
act was commenced or thought of by these few laymen, 
who had not the counsel or help of any one Priest amongst 
them. Yea, for these many years the most part of their 
sermons is in this relative kind, devising names of reproach 
against His Holiness, so far forth that many youths, when 
they are first brought to be Catholics, will hardly be 
brought to think that he is a natural man, and not some 
devil or monster, as they have heard him often described. 
And this custom of the heretics is so common, and yet so 
grievous for zealous Catholics to endure, that it is rather to 
be pitied than marvelled that these few gentlemen, being 
men of great spirit, did want patience to endure any longer 
when they saw all other hopes of help to fail them. We 
hope all others will be warned hereafter, and temper their 
zeal by the counsel of their guides, which, if these had 
done, according to the earnest wishes and serious labours 
of Father Garnett, then had not he sustained so many 
troubles (as I am now to declare) for their trespass, which 
he by all lawful means sought to hinder. 

1 Impugn the known truth. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

OF THE ARRAIGNMENT AND CONDEMNATION OF 
FATHER GARNETT. 

Whereas it was now plainly and directly known unto 
the Council (by the means and in the manner aforesaid) 
how far this matter could be laid unto Father Garnett's 
charge ; and that they had no further expectation to find 
him guilty of any help or furtherance at all given by him to 
this Powder Treason, it was resolved to proceed against 
him only upon his simple knowledge thereof which he had 
received in confession ; esteeming it not fit to let go this 
opportunity, sith no greater advantage could be gotten ; 
especially seeing by this time all men were full of expecta- 
tion what would become of the matter after so long time of 
trial and so many and strict examinations. It was hoped 
also, that howsoever he might excuse himself from fault in 
the sight of God for not revealing the seal and secret of 
confession, yet that he could not justify it before the world : 
it being accounted treason by the laws of England to 
know of treason intended and not to reveal it. In which 
law (now) the knowledge which is had by confession is 
not excepted ; because confession itself being in England 
rejected, the good and necessity of the secrecy thereof 
is not so much esteemed, as their public peace and pros- 
perous proceedings in their worldly estate. Upon this 
ground therefore it was hoped they had matter enough 
against Father Garnett both to make him odious to the 
people, and all Jesuits for his sake ; and therefore it was 
intended, that his trial should be performed in the most 
public and solemn manner they could devise, thereby to 



A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 225 

disgrace the more both him and his religion ; for so in 
express words the Earl of Salisbury did twice publicly 
affirm in the time of his arraignment ; and that otherwise 
such preparation and solemnity had not been needful for 
the arraignment of a poor religious man, and said "he held 
himself much honoured that day to be an assistant where 
God's cause should be so much honoured " (meaning the 
Protestants' religion). And how should this be performed ? 
" By discrediting," said he, " the person of Garnett, on 
whom the common adversary had thought to confer the 
usurpation of so eminent jurisdiction." So that one may 
see plainly the whole day's work was bent against 
religion ; and whatsoever was pretended against Father 
Garnett in this matter, all was directly intended " in 
odium Catholicae Fidei." 1 And so we may see in the 
process of the accusation, when the Attorney brought 
against Father Garnett all other former matter that 
had been forged against the martyrs in Queen Eliza- 
beth's time, with which (if they had been true) yet they 
could no more have charged Father Garnett with them in 
justice, than the child that was then unborn. 

Therefore the day appointed being come, which was 
a Friday, the 28th March, about eight of the clock, he 
was brought from the Tower in a coach with the Lieu- 
tenant of the Tower, Sir William Wade, and another 
Knight, the curtains being close drawn about them. 
Which manner of carriage to judgment being very extra- 
ordinary and not used to any before him, the people did 
much wonder at it, and thought it strange he should be so 
carried, considering that most of those that were indeed 
conspirators in the treason were men of better birth and 
blood than he (which by them is much respected) and yet 
were used in much different manner. But some did more 
truly guess that this was not done for any grace unto him 
(whom they sought to disgrace in all they could), but 

1 In hatred of the Catholic faith. 
P 



226 A Narrative of 

to grace their own cause, by making him seem a man of 
greatest account amongst the Papists, against whom they 
meant to object and hoped to prove the Powder Treason, 
and so all Papists to be as it were proved guilty in him 
they chiefly esteemed and followed. But the curtains 
doubtless were kept close, that the people might not be 
moved with the sight of so reverend a man, or he moved 
upon any occasion to speak unto them in his own clearing. 

There were set in place of judgment in the Guildhall 
the Lord Mayor of London (who in that Court is the 
King's Lieutenant), the Lord Charles Howard, Earl of 
Nottingham, the Lord Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, 
the Lord Somerset, Earl of Worcester, the Lord Henry 
Howard, Earl of Northampton, the Lord Robert Cecil, 
Earl of Salisbury, with Sir John Popham, Lord Chief 
Justice of England, the Lord Chief Baron, and Justice 
Yelverton, Commissioners for His Majesty in that behalf, 
The Lieutenant of the Tower being come with Father 
Garnett to the place of judgment, he returned his writ 
unto the Council (by virtue whereof he had kept the 
prisoner) together with the body of the prisoner there 
present. 1 

The indictment was read and the prisoner called to 
hold up his hand at the bar, as the fashion is. The 
effect of the indictment was this. "That Henry Garnett, 
alias Walley, alias Farmer, alias Darcy, had conspired with 
Robert Catesby and the rest of his confederates (the 9th of 
June last past, in the parish of St. Michael in the ward of 
Queenhithe in London) to withdraw the hearts of the 
subjects from their due obedience to God and their King, 
and to deprive the King of his crown, to kill him and the 
Prince, and to slaughter the whole Parliament assembled, 
to raise rebellion, to change religion, to ruin the common- 
wealth and to bring in strangers : and that this 9th of 

1 But the Commission was not read, which was expected as needful. 
Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 227 

June he met with Catesby and Tesimond and did treat of 
means to accomplish the same, and did conclude that 
Winter, Faulks and others should blow up with powder 
the Parliament House." To this indictment the prisoner 
pleaded " not guilty," and for his trial referred himself to 
God and his country as the manner is. Whereupon a jury 
of substantial citizens was impanelled, and twelve of 
them sworn to try the issue between His Majesty and 
Henry Garnett according to the evidence produced against 
him ; which being done, the indictment was read the 
second time, and then Sir John Crooke, Knight, the King's 
Serjeant, began to plead in this manner (as near as it 
could be remembered by two or three sufficient men that 
were present and did carefully observe both that and all 
the other speeches). 

"'Nihil est occultum,'" said he, "'quod non manifesta- 

The speech of Mr. crooke, bitur '> nihil secretum quod npn reve- 
the King's Serjeant. labitur.' 1 Thus saith the Truth itself, 
'qui consilium pravorum dissipat:' 2 which as it is generally 
true, so is the truth thereof laid open in the discovery 
of the late horrible treason, which though it were closely 
carried, yet by the providence of God, it hath been 
most apparently revealed. And truly when I cast mine 
eyes upon this prisoner, the rotten root of this corrupted 
tree of treason, I am stricken with great horror to 
think that under the cover of so grave a countenance, 
should lurk such a poisoned heart. He is a man, 'mul- 
torum nominum sed nullius boni nominis' 3 — of no good 
name, nor honest conversation, but infamous for many 
treasons, and especially for this last and most abominable 
treason, whereby he intended the subversion of the King, 
Queen, Prince, State, and religion ; and for testimony of his 
guiltiness therein," he said, "they should have 'loquentia 

1 " There is nothing hid, that shall not be revealed; nor secret that shall 
not be known'"' (St. Matt. x. 26). 

2 God " disappointeth the counsel of the wicked " (Job v. 13). 

3 Of many names but of no good name. 



228 A Narrative of 

signa, testimonia rerum/ and 'confitentem reum/ nay, 'reos 
conntentes,' 1 that is the persons guilty accusing one the 
other. We have," said he, " Garnett and Hall accusing 
Greenway, as shall be laid open by the ensuing discourse 
of him to whom it belongeth." 

This speech being ended, Sir Edward Coke, His 

Majesty's Attorney-General, began his speech with a low 

voice, that so his words could not at the first be so dis- 

The s eedi of the tinctly heard ; but it tended to this effect - 

Attorney-General. « That th j s wag R later ac{; of ^ h orr ible 

Powder Treason, that first he craved pardon of their 
Lordships that he might reiterate some things of which 
he had formerly discoursed, 'quia nunquam nimis dicitur, 
quod nunquam satis discitur.' 1 Secondly, he craved 
pardon that without offence to any he might nominate 
some great persons, who were sometimes interested in 
some of these causes ; but he would do it without any 
disgrace at all unto their persons, because," said he, " there 
is great difference to be made between times of hostility and 
times of amity. Thirdly, he desired to satisfy two sorts of 
people that might marvel this execution of justice should 
be so long deferred ; the first of such, as might think such 
delays inconvenient lest the impunity of the malefactors 
might seem to patronize the offence ; the second of such 
persons, as might think the delay of trial argued his clear- 
ness in the cause. To those both he answered, that the 
Lords of the Council (whose great wisdom he would not in 
that place much commend, because 'coram laudare est clam 
vituperare' 3 ) had spent many days in examinations of 
those affairs, and that the prisoner had been twenty-three 
[times] examined ; so that the trial could not have been much 
sooner." (But this seemed to many rather an excuse than 

1 Speaking signs, the testimonies of circumstances, and the confession of 
the accused. 

2 For that can never be said too often which cannot be sufficiently well 
learnt. 

3 Public praise is private blame. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 229 

accusation to the prisoner, in whom there could not with so 
much labour and in so long time be found any crime to 
be justly imposed, for "frustra fit per plura quod fieri 
potest per pauciora." 1 ) "But to draw nearer the cause 
of the prisoner," said Mr. Attorney. " Henry Garnett, 
alias Walley, &c, is a man grave, discreet, wise, learned, 
and of excellent ornaments both of nature and arts." 
(He might have added grace also, if he had had grace to 
see it.) "And one that, if he will, may do His Majesty as 
much good service as any subject I know in England." 
(By this and the like speeches which it seems they used 
often, to work him to yield from profession of his faith, it 
is apparent they would have given him both life and much 
preferment, if he had not rather chosen to die for God than 
to live to the world.) "Besides this man," saith he, "was 
a scholar in Winchester, from thence went to Oxford, 
and there was well esteemed." (This Mr. Attorney did 
mistake, for he was never student in Oxford.) "But he 
hath abused his learning to the ruin of his country, as we 
shall hereafter declare in the discourse following, wherein I 
will speak of nothing but of this late horrible treason ; which 
treason for distinction sake, I will call the Jesuits' treason : 
for the Jesuits were the authors thereof; therefore I will not 
do them the wrong to take from them anything which is 
theirs, especially seeing in every crime ' plus peccat author 
quam actor,' 2 as it appeareth by Adam and Eve and the 
serpent." (But here he presupposeth Father Garnett had 
counselled the Plot, as the indictment had said before, but 
that never was, nor ever can be proved.) "In this discourse 
I will speak of circumstances and observations touching the 
matter in hand : of no other circumstances but of treason, 
and of no other treasons but the Jesuits' treasons ; and of no 
other Jesuits' treasons but such as shall particularly concern 
this prisoner, seeing all have been practised, since he was 

1 It is a mistake to use many means when a few will suffice. 

2 The author of an evil is more guilty than the actual perpetrator. 



230 A Narrative of 

their Superior ; and these circumstances I will divide into 
precedent, concurrent, and subsequent. 

For the precedent circumstances ; you must under- 
stand this man hath been in England this twenty years, 
and from the very first hour he set foot in England 
hath been a notorious traitor, because he came in 
contrary to a statute made the year before his coming 
in, Anno 27 . of our late sovereign of happy memory, 
whereby it was made high treason for any Priest that 
had received Orders from any authority derived from 
the See of Rome beyond the seas, which I beseech your 
Lordships to observe ; for of Queen Mary's Priests nothing 
was spoken in the law." (And the reason hereof is given 
in the former 1 chapter, but here it is apparent, that this 
treason so earnestly urged, was merely matter of religion, 
as in all former martyrs.) " Contrary to which statute this 
prisoner came in, and by consequence at that very instant 
was a traitor. But he will say, this is a new law ; these laws 
were never heard of before Luther's days ; this law is a cruel 
law, a bloody law, prohibiting men to exercise their function, 
to gain souls to God ; and that their religion is the old 
religion, where ours is the new and confined in England, 
where on the contrary side their religion is universal and 
embraced of the greatest part of this Christian world. And 
thus for the maintenance of their rotten religion, do they 
seek to disgrace our gospel and do calumniate just laws 
with title of cruelty. But to this I answer," saith he, "that if 
our religion be as ancient as Luther, it is more ancient than 
the Jesuits are. 2 Albeit it neither be contained in those 
narrow limits of place, nor bounds of time, which they 
feignedly imagine, having been ever since the time of Christ 

1 The Ninth.— Ed. 

2 (So the Attorney, and truly it is a grief to pass forward in this narration 

t *u t? • .1 r.i. and not to refute such absurd speeches as a man 

In the Epistle of the answer r 

to Sir Edward Coke's re- findeth therein, but if I should do so this chapter 
ports- would be much too long, and it is already sufficiently 

done by others. He proceedeth :). Erased in Orig. The passage is in a 

different hand. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 231 

and His Apostles. For we do not deny but Rome was the 
Mother Church and had thirty-two virginal Martyrs for her 
Popes a row ; and so continued till in succeeding ages it 
brought in a mass of errors and idle ceremonies. But you 
will ask, where our Church lurked before Luther's coming 
for some hundreds of years. But I say it makes no great 
matter where it was, so that I be certain it was ; for as a 
wedge of gold, if it be mixed with a mass of other metal," 
&c. (By your leave, Mr. Attorney, if I know not where the 
true Church is, I cannot be of it : if I be not of it, I cannot 
be saved : and if this be no matter to you, yet to God's 
children it is a great matter. And your simile of the wedge 
is lame of all the feet : for the Church if it be invisible to 
all men is gone, "quia ore fit confessio ad salutem," 1 and so 
Christ had no true servants on earth ; but this is like your 
dream before that the true Church could degenerate into 
errors, and yet those coming in, no man being able to name 
the time, the place, nor the person, that did alter any sub- 
stantial point of faith. But can Mr. Attorney think that 
Christ our Lord would put His candle under a bushel, which 
He had lighted with so great labour ? And that which He 
saith no man will do, as being an idle and foolish thing, yet 
will Mr. Attorney have the Wisdom of God to do ? But 
good Mr. Attorney, give me leave to believe Christ our Lord 
before you ; and therefore that the city could not be hid 
which Christ had built upon a hill. And so your imagined 
gold is turned into alchymy, and passeth away in smoke ; 
but if the material wedge of gold be hid, men say you 
know where to find it, if you will but search your coffers 
with half the pains you took to find out this invisible 
wedge of gold. Pardon me for this digression, I could 
not well let such false follies pass without a word or two ; 
but I will not trouble the reader any more, but leave it 
to others : neither should I or any other have had need 
to admonish Mr. Attorney, if Father Garnett had been 

1 "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 10). 



232 A Narrative of 

suffered to speak at large, as he was often of set purpose 
interrupted. But let us proceed in Mr. Attorney his speech.) 
" For as a wedge of gold, if it be dissolved and mixed with 
a mass of brass or other metal, it doth not lose its nature, 
but remaineth gold still, although we cannot determine in 
what part of the mass it is contained, but the touch-stone 
will find that out ; so though our Church hath ever been 
since Christ His time in the world, yet being mixed and 
covered with innovations and errors we cannot tell in what 
part it was." (This is the truest word in all Mr. Attorney his 
speech, but presently linked with the contrary, for he saith :) 
"And I dare say it is now more extended than theirs is, 
for we have all England, all Scotland, all Germany, all 
Denmark, a great part of France, all Poland, and some 
part of Italy. Now as for the statute which they call a 
bloody and cruel statute, I will make it apparent to be the 
mildest law, the sweetest law, the law most full of mercy 
and pity," (It is a great pity it were not executed upon 
Mr. Attorney:) "that ever was enacted by any Prince 
so injuriously provoked as she was. And if I prove not 
this, then let the world say that Garnett is an honest 
man. And to prove this, we must remember that Pius or 
rather Impius Quintus, the Pope, in the eleventh year of 
our late Queen deceased, sent over a Bull of Excommu- 
nication against Her Majesty, discharging all her subjects 
from their allegiance, whereupon arose the insurrection in 
the North, and other rebellions, for which divers were 
apprehended and executed. And here we may observe the 
misery of Popish Catholics, who if they do obey the Bulls 
of the Pope are apprehended and hanged as traitors ; and 
if they do not obey them, are by the Pope excommunicated 
and cursed. But to go forward : from this excommunication 
also proceeded that the Popish Catholics refused to qome 
to our churches ; so that the reason of refusal is not 
religion, but the Pope's Bull, which now being not of force, 
there is no doubt but that they both may and will come to 



the Gunpowder Plot. 233 

our churches." (False.) " Then after the suppression of the 
rebels in the North, the Popish Catholics being thought too 
weak to make a party, then did the Pope give them a 
toleration " rebus sic stantibus et donee commoda executio 
Bullae fieri posset.' 1 Then to make a party of Popish 
Catholics against the Queen, was sent in Campion and a 
crew of Priests with him, that laboured to pervert Her 
Majesty's subjects and draw them to bloody practices, 
which Her Majesty sought to prevent, and withal out of 
her singular clemency made a law, and that the fullest of 
pity that could be devised, to wit, That they should keep 
themselves there (beyond the seas), and not to come into 
her dominions under pain of high treason. Now tell me I 
pray you, was this law made to spill their blood?" (Yes, 
either to spill the Blood of Christ by the loss of souls, if 
the Priests came not in, or if they did, then theirs.) " No, 
it was made to save their blood, by keeping them there, 
which by coming hither would be spilt in bloody practices," 
(which were fathered upon them, that it might not seem 
to be cause of religion.) " Then comes in Garnett in the 
twenty-seventh year of the Queen. His purpose was to 
prepare the way against the great compounded navy, 
which may well be called a compounded navy, because it 
consisted of the ships of all nations in Christendom, that 
either they could beg, hire, or borrow. He came in, I 
say, to be the forerunner of this navy. The Pope was the 
inciter and the Spaniards the actors ; and this great navy 
was overthrown, not so much by our power, as by them- 
selves, their own ships severing and scattering them. So 
that we may well apply those verses to our late sovereign, 
which Claudian sung to his Emperor Theodosius : 

O nimium dilecta Deo, cui militat aether, 
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti. 2 

1 "While circumstances should remain as they were, and until it should be 
fitting to carry out the Bull. 

2 O well beloved of God, for whom the very air fights, and the winds 
conspire to come to the trumpet call. 



234 ^ Narrative of 

" But was this a sufficient warning to the Romish 
Catholics to desist from their treasonable practices ? No, 
for when they saw that open invasion served not their turn, 
they took themselves to private treacheries ; insomuch that 
I dare boldly say" (but not truly) "there passed no four years 
without some one or other treason. For shortly after came 
Patrick Collyn, sent from Father Holt and Father Sherwood, 
two Jesuits, to kill the Queen. Shortly after cometh Lopez 
to poison the Queen, incited likewise by the instigation of 
the Jesuits." (This Lopez was a Jew, the Queen's physician, 
living in London, a rich man, and knew no Jesuit in the 
world, nor was acquainted with any Catholics in England 
that I know of.) "After him came Yorke and Williams 
from Father Holt, who likewise had plotted to kill the 
Queen. Not long after him comes Squire, sent by Father 
Walpole from Spain, to poison Her Majesty." And here Mr. 
Attorney desired licence to advertise the Lords that each 
of these treasons were accompanied with some devilish 
book. "As for example, the plot of Patrick Collyn was 
accompanied with the book of Philopater written by 
Cresswell the Jesuit, their ledger in Spain. Then cometh 
Squire with his plot, and this was accompanied with another 
most pernicious book written by Dolman, alias Persons, 
their great ledger 1 in Rome. And now we are come 
to the Spanish treason, which was in the forty-fourth 
year of our late sovereign. And that you may know 
there was a Spanish treason, you shall understand that 
Thomas Winter, and Father Greenway, alias Tesimond, 
the Jesuit, went over commended by Garnett to offer their 
obedience and service to the King of Spain, and to promise 
him their assistance, when time should serve for advance- 
ment of his title to the crown of England, and withal to 
entreat him to send them an army, to be conveyed hither 
by the galleys of Spinola ; which army, if it were great, 
should land in Kent ; if it were small, it might land at 

1 Prefect. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 235 

Milford Haven ; that they should bring with them a round 
sum of money, and in the meantime to bestow some annual 
pensions upon certain discontented persons here ; and that 
they for their part would prepare two thousand horses, 
which in such attempts were like to be the greatest want. 
This motion being made to the King, they were brought 
unto him ; from him they were directed to the Duke of 
Lerma, who received them gracefully, and finally for their 
answer they were referred to the Conde de Miranda, who 
assured them the King his master liked very well of their 
motion and would be ready to further them in their just 
request, and would henceforward account the English as 
his own Castilians. With this resolution Thomas Winter 
and Greenway returned, expecting the next summer the 
arrival of their navy. And here were not wanting the books 
I mentioned before ; but what books ? They had no books 
indeed ; but that want was supplied with two Breves or 
Bulls, as we call them, and they were most pernicious and 
treacherous, which by God's providence came lately to 
light. The first was directed ' Principibus et Nobilibus 
Catholicis totius Regni Anglicani.' 1 The tenour of this first 
was an admonition that 'postquam contigerit miseram 
fceminam e vita excedere," 2 &c. Here you may mark this 
foul-mouthed monster that calleth our dread sovereign of 
happy memory, 'miseram fceminam;' being one of the 
most renowned of Princes." (Here the reader indeed hath 
cause to mark a foul mouth, that durst call the Vicegerent 
of God Himself a foul-mouthed monster; nor will he mark 
that the Bull speaking only of the time after the Queens 
death, was not to accompany the army, which, if any such 
were intended, was to come at a certain prefixed time ; yea, 
it rather showeth the Pope would have nothing attempted 
in her lifetime.) "But well," saith he, " what followeth in the 
Bull ? Marry, when it shall happen that miserable woman 

1 To the Catholic Princes and Nobles of the whole Kingdom of England. 

2 When it shall happen that that miserable woman shall depart this life. 



236 A Narrative of 

shall depart this life, they shall not admit of any other to 
succeed in her place, 'quacumque propinquitate sanguinis 
niteretur,' 1 except that first they promise not only to tole- 
rate the Catholic religion, but also do bind themselves by oath 
to maintain it and no other: and this to deprive King James 
from his rightful inheritance" (nay, rather to move him to be 
Catholic, and so to get him also a much greater kingdom in 
Heaven). " To exclude him therefore cometh this roaring 
Bull, that warned them also to give notice of her sickness or 
death, as soon as may be, when it should happen, to his 
Legate in Flanders. And so accordingly presently upon 
her indisposition, Christopher Wright was despatched with 
letters of commendation from Garnett the Jesuit, as appeared 
bya confession then produced and read. And here, my Lords, 
let me observe another circumstance very markable ; that 
these peculiar traitors were severally commended by Gar- 
nett the Jesuit, as for example, Thomas Winter went over : 
wherefore ? For treason ; and yet was he commended by 
Garnett the Jesuit. Christopher Wright went over : where- 
fore ? For treason ; and yet was he likewise commended by 
Garnett the Jesuit. Guy Faulks was sent over : wherefore ? 
For treason — that is, to solicit and deal with Owen, that 
Spinola and Sir William Stanley might draw their forces 
near to the sea-side, that when the time served they might 
come over with the more expedition : and yet he also is 
commended by Garnett the Jesuit. Sir Edward Baynham 
was sent over to acquaint the Pope with this business, when 
the blow should be given " (By this known untruth the rest 
may be judged of the better :) "which Edward Baynham 
was a fit messenger between the Pope and the devil ; and 
yet he had also letters of commendation from Garnett the 
Jesuit. So that hereby it is apparent that Garnett was 
not only privy, but consenting to their several practices. 
Now when King James was settled in this kingdom, and 
received of all, then did Garnett burn the Bull. But out of 

1 Whatsoever be the nearness of blood on which his claim rests. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 237 

that Bull did Catesby infer that it was lawful for him to 
entertain any practice against our sovereign that now is ; 
for, said he, it is as lawful for us to expel him and cast him 
out now, seeing by experience he doth persecute religion, 
as by the Breve it was lawful to resist him and reject, when 
we did but fear he would not favour Catholics." (True it 
is Mr. Catesby did argue thus ; but was answered by 
Father Garnett, that the case was not like before and after 
admission, and that we must not by ourselves attempt any- 
thing, the Pope now commanding to be quiet) "The 
other Bull was to the Archpriest and his associates, 
commending their patience and longanimity, and willing 
them to counsel all sorts of lay people to be forward in 
execution of the Pope's command. Well then, out of 
these circumstances, I infer that Garnett was not only 
privy, but an author and actor in this treason. 

" But now let us consider other circumstances that are 
'omni acceptione majores.' 1 Your Lordships must understand 
that Garnett would not be known to any of the actors in 
these bloody practices, but only to Catesby, being a man 
'vafro et versuto ingenio et profunda perfidia,' 2 so that all 
we have against him must be chiefly drawn from himself." 
(Indeed Mr. Catesby was dead, and never affirmed any 
such thing, and the rest of the conspirators in their exami- 
nations and public speeches affirmed the contrary ; so that 
Mr. Attorney did want proof very much, when he brought 
in a dead man to be witness, like to them that brought the 
sleeping soldiers at Christ His sepulchre to be witnesses 
that his body was stolen whilst they were asleep.) "Well 
then, this Garnett confesseth that Catesby had in general 
imparted to him that something would be done by the 
Catholics, but could not reveal in particular what it was 
without the consent of two others of his consorts, which 
Garnett saith he dissuaded him from ; but how know we 

1 Unexceptionable. 

2 Of a cunning and subtle wit and profound perfidy. 



23% A Narrative of 

that he did so ? Only by his own words, who useth to deal 
sincerely in nothing that concerneth himself. But I will 
prove that he did not dissuade them, but did encourage 
them, even to the Powder Treason itself." (Here, by the 
way, I would gladly ask Mr. Attorney how he doth save 
the accusation recited in the indictment from a false 
slander, where it is said that Garnett and Greenway did in 
the beginning meet with Catesby at Queenhithe, and there 
conclude upon destroying the King and Queen and the 
Parliament House by powder ? How could this be true, 
seeing that here now long after, and after the gentlemen 
had concluded as it seems of the matter, and bound one 
another to secrecy, so that as you see Mr. Catesby could 
not reveal it to Father Garnett without leave of two others, 
Father Garnett was all this while ignorant of it : yea, and 
now also had but a general knowledge of something to be 
done, from which also he dissuaded them ? We may see in 
this contradiction Father Garnett his innocency; and 
that Mr. Attorney should be mindful of what he hath 
said, if he will not say the truth. But let us see how 
he seeketh to prove by likelihoods, that here Father 
Garnett, getting some knowledge of the thing in general, 
The case about innocents did Persuade it in particular.) "For 
objected. Father Garnett," said he, "confesseth 

moreover that Mr. Catesby did in general terms pro- 
pound a case unto him, whether it were not lawful 
to destroy many enemies assembled together to our 
ruin, although some innocents must needs be inwrapped 
in the slaughter. To this Garnett answered that in 
just war when a town or castle is besieged that could 
not be taken without battering the walls, and that not 
to be performed without perishing of some innocents, 
in that case, if the advantage which redounded to the 
general good by the death of those enemies were greater 
than the loss should be by the destruction of those 
innocents, that then it was lawful. I beseech your Lord- 



the Gunpowder Plot. 239 

ships mark here, that Garnett approveth this fact in 
particular ; for this resolution was Catesby's whole ground ; 
and this I prove by Rookwood his confession (which he 
brought forth), and therein it appeared that when Catesby 
made the first overture of this matter unto him, he conceived 
great horror of the fact in respect of the innocents that 
were to be there, whereunto Catesby answered, that he had 
advice of the most learned, that it was lawful, not by pro- 
posing the case in particular, but in a like." (Here Mr. 
Attorney, by his plain proof which he promised, hath 
proved himself to be guilty of a malicious and false 
inference, and Father Garnett to be clear from all further- 
ance to the Plot. For, first, this case was put to Father 
Garnett before the time this general notice of something in 
hand was given him by Mr. Catesby : though here Mr. 
Attorney did maliciously put it after, to make it seem that 
Father Garnett might gather some light what should be 
meant by them, hearing now this particular case out of the 
former general knowledge, which the Attorney saith he 
had before received. But the general knowledge came after, 
which I prove by these alleged words of Mr. Attorney. 
For here he saith, he had resolution in this case before he 
acquainted Rookwood ; and that general knowledge was 
given after the matter was commenced : for, so he said, 
there was something in hand, but he could not tell him 
without leave of two ; at which time Father Garnett 
refused to know the matter, but dissuaded it in general. 
Now that he proveth also Father Garnett clear from 
persuasion or consent, I prove by his own words, where he 
saith that Mr. Catesby persuaded Mr. Rookwood to yield, 
upon the resolution he had received of the like case, not of 
tfr<* same case; whereby it appears, they first concluded of 
it amongst themselves, and the rest consented to it, with- 
out Father Garnett his knowledge or privity, much less his 
counsel. Now whereas Mr. Attorney will needs conclude, 
that because Mr. Catesby did infer the lawfulness of the 



240 A Narrative of 

particular out of the resolution in general, therefore Father 
Garnett should be guilty of the powder; by the same 
reason he may prove many Doctors in the Schools, and the 
most learned writers that are or have been, to be guilty of 
the same treason ; for they deliver the same doctrine in the 
same case, as it was put to Father Garnett. And as they, 
being wholly ignorant of the matter, cannot be touched 
with it, for delivering their true opinion, so Father Garnett, 
when that case was put, thought of nothing less than that 
they had any such intent. And afterward when he per- 
ceived something in general, that he also laboured to 
hinder by persuasion : and so no way to be blamed, but 
much to be commended, if he had his right). 

" Then further," says Mr. Attorney, " Garnett, under 
pretence of a journey to St. Winifred's Well, and I know 
not what marriage, retired himself into Warwickshire, 
which was the rendezvous for all the conspirators, 
pretending he had no place to abide in until the 
Parliament." (It is well known to many Catholics that 
all the safe lodgings which Father Garnett had about 
London were lately before discovered, and that was a chief 
cause of his journey ; and it was unfit to take a new house 
about London, before they might see what laws would be 
made at the Parliament, which were expected would be 
such as there would be no abiding there.) "He also made 
a prayer for the great business about the Parliament time, 

which was 

Gentem 1 auferte perfidam 
Credentium de finibus, 
Ut Christo laudes debitas 
Persolvamus alacriter." 2 

See Father Garnett his answer. 



1 Take away the faithless people from the boundaries of the Faithful, that 
we may joyfully give due praises unto Christ. 

2 This was the hymn of that time, being the Feast of All Saints, and so 
applied by Father Garnett to the hindrance of heretics in making heretical laws 
intended against Catholics. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 241 

Now for the subsequent circumstances Mr. Attorney 
produced, an interlocution between Father Garnett and 
Father Ouldcorne in the Tower ; which thing is before 
declared at large and therefore needs not here be set 
down, the chapter growing too long by other points 
not before so much declared. Only this here is to be 
noted, that Mr. Attorney reported the matter otherwise 
than it was ; for he said, that by reason the Tower was full 
of prisoners, the Lieutenant was constrained for want of 
room to lodge them in two chambers joining one upon 
another, which they perceiving did often discourse together, 
and being overheard by the Lieutenant's men passing to 
other prisoners, some of them were placed near adjoining 
to overhear them. 1 And so out of that interlocution, and 
Father Garnett his confession taken by the Lords after the 
same, he proved that Father Garnett was told in confession 
of the Powder Treason ; which point alone he was able 
to prove against Father Garnett, and the which Father 
Garnett acknowledged, but proved it to be both lawful and 
necessary for him to proceed as he did therein. Then Mr. 
Attorney began to exaggerate the greatness of the treason, 
because it was intended against so worthy a Prince, and 
so noble a progeny, in whose praises he spent a long time ; 
but not needful to be set down in this place. Then he 
praised and sought to please the City of London, affirming 
that the King, in desire to give contentment unto the 
city, had caused that solemn trial to be made in that 
place, which belonged to the public justice of the city. 

Then he returned to Father Garnett, and said that he 
and the Jesuits had plotted these foresaid treasons against all 
these so worthy persons ; and that the Jesuits were Doctors 
of four D's ; first of Dissimulation, wherein he made an 
invective against the doctrine of equivocation, showing a 

1 Thus he. But he did not know that my Lord of Salisbury would after- 
wards tell the case truly that it was done of policy. So we see that Mr. 
Attorney can add and diminish like a cunning orator. Erased in Orig. 

Q 



242 A Narrative of 

written book of that matter which had been taken in some 
search, the title whereof was written with Father Garnett 
his own hand, "Against lying and untruths;" and, said Mr. 
Attorney, 1 "If this doctrine might be admitted, that men 
may swear and forswear what they list, there would be no 
martyrs : the holy Ridley, Cranmer, and Latimer would 
not have been martyred.' > (These were three notorious 
heretics burnt in Queen Mary's time.) "The thirty-two 
Popes, that were virginal martyrs, would not have suffered 
on a row. This doctrine was begun by Arius, who having 
a schedule of the Catholic doctrine in his left hand, and 
another of his own opinion in his bosom, laid his right 
hand upon his breast and sware he believed and would 
maintain that doctrine he had in his hand during his life." 
(Many such things he said against " equivocatio," either 
mistaking or misreporting wholly the state of the question.) 
The second D, he said, was Deposing of Princes, for which 
he produced a place out of Philopater, affirming that 
heretics cannot bear rule over Catholics ; and another out of 
Dolman's book of titles to the like effect, also two places of 
Simanha, whom he termed the Spanish Jesuit. The first, 
that all heretics were excommunicate de jure at Easter, 
and were excommunicate de facto. The second was that 
a Prince once excommunicate "amittit jus regnandi;" 2 and 
not only for himself, but for his heirs. The third D, is the 
Disposing of kingdoms, for proof whereof, he alleged that 
they would have disposed of the kingdom of England to 
the Infanta of Spain, without any memory of King James. 
The fourth and last D, was the Deterring of Princes with 
fear of their excommunications, and I know not what. And 
then, with some invectives against Jesuits, he dehorted all 
men from conversing with them, with this saying, "Qui 
cum Jesu itis, non itis cum Jesuitis." "Neither," said he, " are 

1 (Either mistaking or misreporting the state of the question). Erased 
in Orig. 

2 Loses the right of reigning. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 243 

their Priests less perilous than they of whom I hope I may- 
presage the destruction near at hand ; for seeing I am 
informed they are in number about four hundred, they may 
fitly be resembled to the four hundred false prophets that 
Micheas had in his company j 1 for as they were possessed of 
lying spirits and then perishing, so may we hope that these 
Priests and Jesuits publicly teaching this doctrine of lying 
and equivocating are near their downfall." And then 
making a low reverence he concluded his speech. 

Mr. Attorney having ended, 2 Father Garnett, having 
first made his reverence with a very modest coun- 
tenance began his speech, first craving pardon for the 
weakness of his memory, if he should fail to give them 
satisfaction in any particular that had been objected 
* a r. «. against him. "But I trust," said he, "with the 

Father Garnett <=> ' ' 

his speech. help of Mr Attorney, I shall fail in nothing of 
consequence. And considering the whole discourse of Mr. 
Attorney, I find the things by him treated of, may be 
reduced to four principal heads : the first, concerning our 
doctrine in general ; the second, concerning recusants in 
general; third, concerning Jesuits in general ; the last, con- 
cerning myself in particular. 

"And for the first, Mr. Attorney inveigheth greatly 
n , .. against that point of doctrine wherein 

t. Concerning Catholic ° *■ 

doctrine m general. we teach that equivocations in some cases 
may be lawfully used, as a doctrine which he sup- 
poseth to hinder Martyrs from their crowns and to 
break the bonds of human society; neither of which 
can ensue out of that doctrine, as we do teach it. 
For we do not teach (as Mr. Attorney afhrmeth) that 
it is lawful to equivocate in matters of faith ; but we 
teach the contrary most expressly, rejecting that doctrine 
as an heresy, condemned long since in the Priscilianists. 
Yea, some Catholics have suffered death for answering 

1 Dreamed of. Erased in Orig. 

2 His long discourse. Erased in Orig. 



244 A Narrative of 

directly to questions which they might have avoided, but 
that they feared they should then equivocate in matters 
of faith, or seem to deny their religion. And, my Lords, 
because I have discoursed to your Lordships of this point 
heretofore, and to other learned men sent to me in the 
Tower, I will be the shorter at this present : and as I 
say, it is never lawful to equivocate in matters of faith, so 
also in matters of human conversation, it may not be used 
promiscually, or at our pleasure ; as in matters of contract, 
in matters of testimony, or before a competent judge, or 
to the prejudice of any third person : in which cases we 
judge it altogether unlawful. But only we think it lawful 
when it is no way prejudicial to others and to be used for 
our own or our brother's good, or when we are pressed to 
questions that are hurtful to be answered unto, or urged 
upon examination to answer to one who is no competent 
judge, or who would force us to open matters not liable to 
his court : as if they should examine me of the secrets of 
my heart, or the secrets I have heard in confession ; 
because these secrets are not liable to any external court, 
I may in these cases, for avoiding of inconvenience, and 
redeeming my own vexation, lawfully use some reservation. 
Neither doth this liberty prejudice any whit human 
conversation ; but it is conformable to reason, agreeable to 
the doctrine of the holy Fathers, and to the consent of all 
learned men, without contradiction of any one that ever I 
heard or read of, who teach generally with St. Thomas of 
Aquin, affirming the same which I have said, in several 
places, and specially in that place where he teacheth that 
if a Confessor should by any man whosoever be examined 
concerning points which he knoweth only by confession, he 
may lawfully, yea, he is bound to disavow them. And this 
doctrine is also found in the Scripture itself; for confir- 
mation whereof, I will cite only two places. The first is 
that place where our Saviour being demanded concerning 
the Day of Judgment by His disciples made answer, 'De 



the Gunpowder Plot. 245 

die ilia nemo novit, neque Angeli Dei, neque Alius hominis, 
nisi solus Pater.' 1 But certain it is that Christ our 

Matt. 24. 

Mark 13. s av j our ^d know of the Day of Judgment, not 
only as He was God, but as He was Man also, as all holy 
Doctors and Divines do constantly affirm. Wherefore it 
cannot be denied but therein He used some mental reserva- 
tion. For lying can no ways be tolerable and much less 
practised by Him that is the rule and measure of all truth, 
as St. Augustine excellently proveth in that place where he 
distinguisheth eight kind of lies, all of them being sins; and 
the least of those when it is 'mendacium officiosum/ to 
the good of some, without the hurt of any. So that seeing 
this saying of our Saviour cannot be verified otherwise but, 
as St. Augustine expoundeth it, with this secret reservation 
that He knew it not to reveal it, it cannot be denied but 
these reservations in some cases are lawful. The second 
example is, where He said to His Disciples, 'Vos ascendite 
ad diem festum hunc : ego autem non ascendo ad diem 

John 7 . festum istum.' 2 And yet, notwithstanding, the 
Evangelist affirmeth that after they were gone to the feast, 
'tunc et ipse ascendit ad diem festum non manifeste, sed 
quasi in occulto,' 3 which argueth that in this general denial 
to go, He meant only that He would not go in public, 
which in His mind He reserved." 

Here my Lord of Salisbury interrupted the prisoner and 
said, that because the truth was oftentimes more plainly 
discovered by interposition of questions and answers, than 
by a continual speech delivered together, he would ask of 
Mr. Garnett one question concerning that doctrine he 
delivered. " For you teach it," said he, " to be unlawful to 
equivocate before a competent judge, and I trust you take 

1 "Of that clay or hour no man knoweth, neither the Angels in heaven, 
nor the Son, but the Father " (St. Mark xiii. 32 ; Cf. St. Matt. xxiv. 36). 

2 "Go you up to this festival-day: but I go not up to this festival-day" 
(St. John vii. 8). 

3 "Then He also went up to the feast, not publicly, but as it were in 
private " (St. John vii. 10). 



246 A Narrative of 

us to be such. At the least I do. Now did not you deny in 
the Tower unto me with earnest asseveration, that you had 
not any conference with Hall, until the witness was pro- 
duced against you, and then you confessed it ? Is not this 
to equivocate before a competent judge, and in a matter of 
small consequence?" To this the prisoner answered that 
he did so because, until the witness came, he did think 
the matter wholly secret, and therefore not liable to the 
examination of any judge, though otherwise competent ; 
besides he deemed it prejudicial to a third person, whom 
then he accounted an honest man. Then he went forward 
in his speech. 

"The second point of our doctrine," said he, "that Mr. 
Attorney greatly inveigheth against, is the doctrine of de- 
posing of Princes and excommunicating of Kings. Whereof 
although I could discourse at large, yet for that I am unwil- 
ling in this honourable assembly to speak anything which 
may be offensive to His Majesty or to them, I will only say a 
word or two in just excuse of myself and my brethren, the 
Catholics of England. And, first, I beseech your Lordships 
to consider that our doctrine in this point is the very same 
which is taught and holden by all Catholic Divines and 
other subjects in all Catholic Universities and countries of 
the Christian world, which subjects are not by their Princes 
censured for this doctrine or condemned as traitors, nor 
their doctrine judged to be seditious or treasonable. And 
therefore I cannot see why we, concurring with them and 
with all our predecessors in this kingdom, without 
innovation or changing any one principle or tittle in that 
matter, should be so severely branded with such notes of 
infamy. Secondly, for clearing our case the more, I will 
observe a great difference to be made between our 
Sovereign that now is, and other Princes that have once 
embraced and professed the Catholic faith and do afterwards 
revolt and decline into heresies, parting themselves from 
that body unto which they were before united, disjoining 



the Gunpowder Plot. 247 

and dividing themselves from that Head to whom before 
they had submitted themselves and by whom they were 
governed ; for they incur the censures which those authors, 
cited by Mr. Attorney, do speak of, and are punishable by 
that power which in precedent times they admitted. But 
His Majesty's case is different from theirs ; for he main- 
tained! no other doctrine than that which from his cradle 
he hath been nourished and brought up in. And there- 
fore those general sentences are not by any private 
man to be applied to his case in particular." Here the 
Earl of Salisbury again interrupted him and demanded 
if the Pope could excommunicate King James, his 
Sovereign. The prisoner answered, "My Lord, I cannot 
deny the authority of His Holiness." Then my Lord of 
Salisbury demanded, whether if he should be excom- 
municated, it were lawful for his subjects to rebel against 
him. "My Lord," said he, "I have already answered that 
point. I beseech your Lordship to press me no further. 
You have my opinion in the Canon of Nos Sanctorum y 
which I before alleged." Then Mr. Attorney produced the 
Canon, which was publicly read with derision of divers 
standers-by, who thought it ridiculous that the Pope 
should have such authority over Princes. 

2 . Concerning recu- After tllIs the Fatlier Proceeded and 

sants in general. g^ ^ second ^fog he WOuld anSWer 

unto, should be recusants in general, "who," saith he, 
" are accused by Mr. Attorney that they only grounded 
their recusancy upon the excommunication of the Queen 
by Pius V^ s , which, if it were true, then Mr. Attorney 
did infer that, seeing that our Sovereign that now is 
stands not excommunicate, it were lawful to repair 
to the churches and service of England. But if this 
were lawful, doubtless Catholics would have done it before 
this, thereby to avoid the penalty of those statutes 
which in that case are enacted. Neither is it true, that 
Mr. Attorney so constantly avoucheth, that till the eleventh 



248 A Narrative of 

year of Queen Elizabeth all Catholics did resort to their 
churches. For I knew many Catholics at that time living, 
that I am certain never went to Protestants' churches in 
their lives. And Sir Thomas Fitzherbert of my knowledge 
did not only refuse it before that time himself, but also had 
written a treatise to prove that it could not be tolerated in 
any Catholic ; and it is apparent to the world that before 
that time many Catholic Bishops and Priests were 
imprisoned for their refusal. Whereby it is evident that 
their recusancy is not founded upon any excommunication ; 
but only upon mere matter of conscience, judging it un- 
lawful to communicate in their service 1 with such as have 
separated themselves from the Church. Which doctrine is 
as ancient as the condemnation of the Arian heresy ; for 
even then the Catholics refused in divinis to communicate 
with the Arians, albeit they had Priests, Masses, Altars 
and their whole service, the same both in substance and 
ceremony. Which doctrine hath also been taught by the 
most learned of the Protestants, Calvin, Luther, Beza and 
others, who all teach it to be unlawful to be present at our 
service, not only at Mass, which they count idolatry, but 
at Evensong also. Yet I grant this point was not so 
clearly understood by Catholics here until the Council of 
Trent, where twelve most grave and learned men were 
appointed to consult and conclude of this matter ; who 
without controversy determined, that it was in no case 
lawful to communicate with the heretics in their service, no, 
not to avoid any torment whatsoever. And their decision 
was by the whole Council approved ; although the same 
was also concluded of by the Council of Nice above 1,300 
years ago." Here again he was interrupted by my Lord 
of Salisbury, saying, "You go about to seduce the people." 
The rest of his speech only tended to the City of London, 
and seemed to tell them they should see such an anatomy 
of the Popish doctrine, that he hoped after that it would 

1 In divinis. Erased in Orig, 



the Gunpowder Plot. 249 

not have so many followers, with other words to like effect ; 
which speech being ended, the prisoner resumed his 
discourse and said : 

The Jesuits in "The third thing I determined to speak 
general. Q f was ^ e Jesuits in general ; of whom some 
have been by Mr. Attorney accused of undertaking 
several treasonable attempts, as the matters of Patrick 
Collyn, Yorke, Williams, and Squire, of all which I can 
say no more but this, that I have had the hands and 
protestations of those Fathers that are accused, as Father 
Holt and Father Walpole, who on their salvations 
affirm they never treated with the parties concerning any 
such matter; and that it was very unlikely, seeing the 
enterprisers of them were no Catholics, or but feigned 
Catholics, as Yorke and Squire were, who died Protestants, 
and were of so little acquaintance with those Fathers that 
it was no way probable they would employ them in 
matters of such weight. And howsoever they might in 
time of torture, or for fear, be brought to accuse themselves, 
yet at their death some of them discovered the practices 
and protested they died innocent of the facts for which 
they suffered, as Williams and Squire did. And for 
Father Sherwood, accused also by Mr. Attorney, there 
neither is nor was any such Father of the Society. Indeed 
there was one of that name that entered the Society ; but 
he died before he came to be Priest. But I am sure there 
was none such of the Society, as Mr. Attorney accuseth. 

4 .FatherGarnettin " N ° W f ° r m Y Sel{ ' 1R Particular. First 

particular. j protest I am clear from approving, and 
much more from furthering, either this or any other 
treasonable attempts, and have ever thought and taught 
them to be unlawful ; and have by all my best endeavours 
laboured to divert and suppress them. True it is, 1 that 
I did understand in general by Mr. Catesby, 2 that 

1 Albeit I must acknowledge. Erased in Orig. 

2 Long since. Erased in Orig. 



250 A Narrative of 

he would have attempted something for the good of 
Catholics ; which I dissuaded him from so effectually, that 
I well hoped he would have desisted from all such 
pretences. And this I revealed not, because as a Religious 
Priest I thought to suppress it between him and me ; 
which course our Saviour prescribeth, warning us, that if 
our brother offend in anything, we should admonish him 
between him and us : and if this prevail, 'Lucratus es 
fratrem tuum,' 1 saith our Saviour ; and if that reclaim him 
not, then we may proceed further. Now, my Lords, 
because I was persuaded that upon this admonition he 
would give over his former designs, I held myself in 
conscience discharged from making any further discovery 
of that practice. Howbeit that in your common law I 
think that insufficient, in regard it deemeth it not con- 
venient to leave the safety of the commonwealth 
depending on the discretion or peculiar provision of any 
private person. But yet, my Lords, that I did dislike such 
proceedings, and as much as I could did endeavour to 
reclaim them, your Lordships may gather by the express 
commandment which I procured by means of our Superior, 
whereby was expressly forbidden all attempts against the 
King in general, and also by the endeavours I used as 
seriously as I could to procure the like prohibition, and that 
under pain of some heavier censure : which I would never 
have endeavoured, if I had any way approved it. And I 
knew very well His Holiness much disliked all such courses ; 
and, as I was informed, commended my care and vigilancy 
in seeking to repress the former stirs, wherein Watson and 
Clarke did join with others the first year of the King's 
coming into England. And lastly, in that I knew them to 
be contrary to our Religious obedience (of which virtue in 
the Society we make special account), by which we were 
expressly forbidden to meddle in any such causes." 

Here Mr. Attorney interrupted him and said, that he 

1 "Thou shalt gain thy brother" (St. Matt, xviii. 15). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 251 

did not forbid them, for he could prove no such matter, but 
only by his words, who used to speak the best in favour of 
himself, "and," said he, "for that prohibition which you 
procured, I do not think you did it for love to us, but for 
your own ends, lest that by some matter of small import- 
ance your main plot should be prevented and hindered." 
To this he answered, "That all were prohibited in general, 
and therefore it could not be in favour of any one in 
particular." (Besides that prohibition was procured long- 
before Father Garnett knew of this particular designment 
of those gentlemen, which as it appears by all proofs, was 
long after the powder was all placed, and but a little time 
before it should have been put in execution.) "And, Mr. 
Attorney," said Father Garnett, "howsoever you labour to 
misconstrue my intentions, my meaning was so as I have 
said. And to proceed further, I am blamed also for giving 
letters of commendation to Mr. Thomas Winter and Faulks 
and others that went over (as now it appears) for accomp- 
lishing of treasons. And to this I answer, that I gave them 
indeed letters of commendation ; but I protest I knew not 
that they went over about matters of treason, for that I never 
inquired of their businesses. But if I knew them to be 
Catholic men and of good conversation, then, 1 without 
further inquiry, I gave them letters to testify so much to 
my friends beyond seas, desiring their favours and further- 
ance for them in any ordinary matter of courtesy or charity. 
And the like letters I have given to divers other Catholics 
that were no ways to be touched with any treacherous 
attempts : and these were altogether unknown to me." 

Here my Lord of Salisbury did interrupt him. "Mr. 
Garnett," said he, "did you give them the letters without 
knowing the end why they were sent over?" "Yea, 
my Lord," said he. "Why," said my Lord of Salisbury, 
" did not you yourself tell me that you did nominate 
Sir Edmond Baynham as a fit man to go over to the 

1 Upon means made unto me. Erased in Orig. 



252 A Narrative of 

Pope?" "My Lord," said Father Garnett, "I told your 
Honour thus much : that it was thought convenient that 
some one should inform His Holiness of the estate of our 
country, and that it was a great charge to send over one of 
purpose for that business ; knowing therefore that Sir 
Edmond Baynham was going over, and had been so 
resolved for above two years, I thought it better, that now 
he might discharge that care and save that charge, than 
that one should be sent over to the Pope of set purpose to 
inform of the state of England." "Nay," said my Lord of 
Salisbury, " you told me that Sir Edmond Baynham went 
over to acquaint the Pope with this Plot of Treason, and 
that therefore you would not have him said to be sent by 
you, because the Pope would be offended that you em- 
ployed a layman in that business." "My Lord," said Father 
Garnett, "at the going over of Sir Edmond Baynham I did 
not know of that treason myself, and therefore could not 
think that Sir Edmond went to acquaint him with it." 
(Note the modesty of this Father that would not contradict 
the Earl, although the matter touched him very near ; but 
rather proved, by a necessary consequence, that he could 
not say so unto him, than he would seem to aver the other 
had misreported his words.) "Nay I am persuaded," 
said the Father, "that Mr. Catesby would not have 
revealed the matter in particular to the Pope himself. 
Howbeit, afterwards I imagined with myself that perad- 
venture Mr. Catesby by his means might intend to 
acquaint His Holiness with some pretence in general 
for the Catholic cause, which they would undertake if 
His Holiness should approve it. And this I supposed 
only because Mr. Catesby promised me that he would 
not go forward with any attempt till the Pope had 
been acquainted and made privy to it. And I said to your 
Lordship, that therefore I would not that Sir Edmond 
should be sent from us ; for that it would displease the Pope 
we should send or employ any person whomsoever in the 



the Gtmpowder Plot. 253 

affairs of England ; but refer them to others, whom it more 
concerned." 1 

Then Mr. Attorney replied that Mr. Faulks had 
confessed that Sir Edmond Baynham was to give notice 
unto the Pope of this their attempt : and to this effect was 
produced a confession of Faulks which said that Sir 
Edmond Baynham was sent to Rome to acquaint the Pope 
with the matter when the blow should be given, and to 
crave his assistance and furtherance in all. To this he 
answered : "What they determined, I know not. And it 
may be, they thought at that time to have conveyed him 
some letter to give him notice thereof. But it is more 
than I know, and very unlikely that the first news should 
come by me, for the common fame and rumour thereof 
would have prevented my letters by a great while." Then 
said Mr. Attorney : "You see, my Lords, what great care 
this man had for the preventing of this so great a danger ; 
and yet he saith he did not approve nor consent to it. 
But I will prove that he did both ; for, as I have said 
before, he gave Catesby the resolution that it was lawful 
to be done not in that case, but in another like to it ; which 
notwithstanding was the sole ground Catesby stood upon, 
as appeareth by Rookwood's confession, before alleged and 
now again produced and read. Besides he made a prayer 
for the good success of the Powder Treason, about the 
time it should have been put in practice, he having known 
thereof in particular before by Greenway his confession." 
™ . . . To this the prisoner answered : 

I he case concerning innocents, ± 

answered by Father Garnett. « That ^ case wag proposed to him 

in general, and so he resolved it, being a case common 
in all just wars, where if a town could not be taken, 
or a wall beaten down without the death of some 
innocents, all casuists do hold that fact to be lawful. But 
that Mr. Catesby misapplied this general question, was 
neither fault nor approbation of mine ; which when I heard 

1 This part may be omitted. In marg. against this sentence. 



254 A Narrative of 

of, I conceived a great horror at the thing itself, and 
thought it would be a scandal and disgrace to Catholics ; 
and therefore, besides the former means which I had used 
to suppress it, I did also in my prayers desire some milder 
course might be taken, if it were God's will." "Nay," said 
my Lord of Salisbury, " you prayed not with that condition ; 
for you said to me in the gallery, that although we did not 
approve of your Masses, yet you did think assuredly that 
they had done us good ; for you prayed heartily that it 
might not come to pass, except it were for the good of the 
The prayer objected to Father Church." Father Garnett answered 

Garnett answered by him. „ ^ he ^ ^ ^ . ^ ^ he 

desired God to make a milder course, if it were His 
holy will. As for the prayer upon All-Hallow Day, 
wherein you note those words so precisely, 'Gentem 
auferte perfidam,' you must understand it was the hymn 
of the same Feast, which in my exhortation I admonished 
the hearers to iterate unto Almighty God for the Catholic 
cause, the Parliament being then at hand, and great fears in 
us of more severity ensuing towards us ; and therefore I 
meant not the Powder Treason, but to desire God that He 
would put in the mind of His Majesty and the Lords there 
assembled in the Parliament not to permit those rigorous 
laws to pass against us, which we feared would at that 
time be concluded of, and to restrain the too much forward- 
ness of some others in the company that were more violent 
against us." "Indeed," said Mr. Attorney, "you said you 
would so colour it." "No, in truth," said the Father, 
" that was my true intention." 

Then witnesses were called into the Court which had 
heard the interlocution ; and Mr. Attorney spake in com- 
mendation of one of them, saying he was a great linguist, a 
Justice of Peace, and a learned man, and one that would do 
wrong to no man. Father Garnett said he thought so too, 
but he might be mistaken, for that which he said was no 
more but that he could answer that point very well, for he 



the Gunpowder Plot. 255 

would say (as in truth it was) that he meant, that the laws 
intended might not pass against us. " And how say you, 
Mr. Fawcet, bethink yourself, were you not mistaken ? " 
(Here one may see the good Father had some hope left, 
that some sparks of grace and true dealing had been left in 
the man according to his former promises of friendly 
meaning ; but he found the contrary, and that they were 
agreed together what they would aver, "convenientes in unum 
adversus christum Domini, 1 " for he answered,) "No," said he, 
" we both understood it so and writ it down so, and have had 
so great care to do you no wrong, that we omitted divers 
things wherein we agreed not, and nothing was set down, 
but with both our consents." "No," saith my Lord of 
Salisbury, "if we would touch you with the testimony of one 
witness, we could charge you with further matters than 
these, but we will not do so, that the world may see what 
mildness and mercy we use in execution of justice, and to 
this end my Sovereign determined that your trial should be 
in this honourable assembly. For who is Garnett that he 
should be called hither ; or we should trouble ourselves in 
this Court with him ? which I protest were sufficient for the 
greatest Cardinal in Rome, if in this case he should be 
tried. No, Mr. Garnett, it is not for your cause that you 
are called hither, but to testify to the world the foul- 
ness of your fact, the errors of your religion, and His 
Majesty's clemency. For these causes His Majesty ordained 
your trial should be in this Court before this honourable 
assembly, wherein we may glory as much as if the greatest 
Cardinal in Rome were pleading at the bar. And, 
therefore, the witness is a man of reputation and who 
would do you no wrong." 

Mr. Garnett said he thought so too, but he might be 

mistaken. "No," said my Lord of Salisbury, "he was near 

you enough to understand your words : for Hall and you, 

of policy, were lodged so near one to the other and in such a 

1 Agreeing together against the anointed of the Lord ( Vid. Psalm ii. 2). 



256 A Narrative of 

place where your interlocutions might be easily heard." 
(Here it appears Mr. Attorney his speech was idle when he 
said it was for want of rooms and by chance that they 
were overheard ; but he did not foresee that the Earl 
meant to make the truth in this point of policy serve his 
turn for a further policy, as here it appeareth. Unto which 
end also the good usage was directed to satisfy the 
Ambassadors who were then present, and others that were 
like to inquire of his us 1 age in particular.) "For Christian 
policy is not to be condemned in any well-governed 
commonwealth, and if we should not use such courses, I 
know not how we should deal with such people as you. 
You have in your pamphlets so described us for cruelties 
and persecutions. But let him testify that is here at the 
bar, whether he hath not been used with extraordinary 
favour? How say you, Mr. Garnett, is it not so?" "My 
Lord," said the Father, " I must acknowledge my entreaty 
to have been very honourable, for which I esteem myself 
much bound to His Majesty." 

Then my Lord of Salisbury urged that he was 
bound to have discovered the Powder Treason which he 
knew by Greenway his confession, " being no sacramental 
confession by your own laws," said he, " for it had no 
contrition and was de futiiris, and so could not be a 
Sacrament in your own religion." (This point is answered 
where the thing itself is particularly declared at the time and 
place when it happened. Here the Father did only answer 
to the Earl's chief intention and said :) "Though he 
nothing doubted but Mr. Greenway had contrition and all 
things needful to make it a sacramental confession, yet 
howsoever the party were penitent or not, the Confessor 
may not reveal it without mortal sin, if he utter himself in 
confession, and not in derision of the Sacrament." Then 
said the Earl of Northampton, "Mr. Garnett, Greenway in 
his reservative clause was more careful of you than of the 
King or commonwealth, in giving liberty to you to reveal 



the Gunpowder Plot. 257 

it in time of your own danger, which should have 
been rather to have prevented the danger to the King 
and commonwealth." Father Garnett answered that Mr. 
Greenway having it himself also from them by confession, 
was restrained and limited how far he should give leave to 
open it ; and that the Confessor hath no extensive liberty 
at all further than the penitent gives unto him. 

Then said the Earl of Nottingham, "Mr. Garnett, 
if a man should tell you in confession that he would 
stab the King with a dagger to-morrow, are you not 
bound to reveal it?" "My Lord," said he, "unless 
I could know it by some other means, I might not." 
Hereupon the people fell into a great laughter, not 
understanding that the secrecy of confession concerneth a 
greater good in the life of many souls, than the corporal life 
can be of any particular man. When the laughter ceased, 
the Father proceeded and said, "In that case, my Lord, 
my duty were to dissuade the party from it, to refuse 
to give absolution, and by all x means to labour to 
divert it, which might not open the confession." 

Then said the Earl of Northampton, "Mr. Garnett, you 
were consenting to the Powder Treason, for you did not 
forbid it : and it is a case by every good Priest approved, 
that 'Qui non prohibet cum potest, jubet.'" 2 "My Lord," 
said the Father, " I did prohibit it, as much as in me lay." 
My Lord of Northampton replied, "Why did you not then 
make it known to those that could and would have hindered 
it?" Father Garnett answered, as before, that he could 
not do it, because he knew it only in confession. Then the 
Attorney pressed him in this manner. "Although you could 
not discover Mr. Greenway, by whose confession you knew 
it, yet might you have well discovered what you understood 
concerning Catesby and his associates, whose confessions 
you heard not." The Father answered, "What sin soever is 

1 Indirect. Erased in Orig. 

2 Not to prohibit when possible, is to order. 



258 A Narrative of 

heard in confession, although it concern not the penitent 
but some other, cannot lawfully be revealed." 

Mr. Attorney then urged him with his being in 
Warwickshire at that time when these troubles should 
have happened, amplifying it again, as in his former speech 
he had done. To which Father Garnett answered that 
by reason of a journey which he had made that summer to 
St. Winifred's Well, he passed through that country, and 
was by the entreaty of some of his friends and some 
occasion also of business detained there for a time, not 
suspecting any such troubles would have happened in that 
place : which, if by any forecast he could have foreseen, 
they might well imagine he would in discretion have been 
a good way off from that place and country. 

" But," said my Lord of Salisbury, " what did you, 
Mr. Garnett, the 6th day of November, when Bates 
came to you with a letter from Catesby, after the Plot 
was discovered and they in open rebellion?" "My 
Lord," said Father Garnett, " I said I would not meddle 
with him that had wrought himself into such treasonable 
attempts, and thereby endangered himself and his friends." 
"Yea, but," replied the Earl of Salisbury, "did not you send 
Greenway to Catesby, who went to raise the countries 
abroad ? " " My Lord," said Father Garnett, " he went 
without my knowledge ; neither could I gather by any 
speech of his that he had any such intention, as Bates 
could testify, if he were alive." And indeed Bates 
had said as much as that in his letter, before set down 
verbatim in the nth chapter, which was more than Father 
Garnett could know of. 

Then, for conclusion, Mr. Attorney desired license 
to read a letter written by Mr. Tresham, lying upon 
his death-bed in the Tower, wherein upon his salva- 
tion he cleared Father Garnett of any notice of the 
Spanish treason, protesting that he had wronged him 
in it, and that he had not seen Father Garnett of 



the Gunpowder Plot. 259 

fourteen years before. "Now," said Mr. Attorney, "to prove 
this untrue, here is a confession of Mrs. Ann Vaux, who 
(though otherwise a very obstinate woman) yet in this she 
confesseth plainly, that within these three years Tresham 
had been several times at her house with Father Garnett, 
and twice this last year, at which times Father Garnett had 
given him very good counsel. So that you see," saith 
Mr. Attorney, "they will swear and forswear anything." 
The like said my Earl of Salisbury upon the same 
occasion. 

But they did not (or would not) mark, that Mrs. 
Ann Vaux her confession doth make nothing at all 
against Mr. Tresham his protestation ; for he said not 
he had not seen Father Garnett within the last three 
years ; but that he had not seen him of fourteen years 
before the Spanish treason, which was the year before 
the Queen's death ; as his words are plain, and the cause 
also of his writing doth make it plain, for his intention was 
only to clear the Father of the Spanish treason, which he 
had wrongfully accused him of, and therefore it was a very 
material proof that he had not seen him of fourteen years 
before that business j 1 but they would needs draw his meaning 
to be, that he had not seen him of fourteen years before the 
writing of the letter. But this was their misconstruing, not 
his equivocating ; yea, then his words had been very 
unproper, for he should rather then have said, "I have not 
seen him of fourteen year, or this fourteen years ; " but 
whereas he said, "I did not see him of fourteen years 
before," he must needs mean of fourteen years before the 
time he spake of, which was the Spanish treason. There- 
fore they were to blame, that did so much insult upon Mr. 
Tresham after his death, as though he had been found to 
have protested an untruth. But they did it to take 
occasion to infer thereby that other protestations also were 
like to be untrue, which divers of the conspirators had 

1 This may be left out. In marg. 



260 A Narrative of 

made before their death to clear the Fathers. But against 
theirs, no pretence of exception could be alleged ; but only 
that theirs might be false, because this was false : which 
had been an evil consequence, although this had not been 
true. But this of Mr. Tresham's was true : and the others 
undoubted, and no ways to be disproved. And it is worthy 
to be noted how Almighty God did permit them now, at 
the end of this long day's trial of Father Garnett, to bring 
forth this letter (whereby they thought so clearly to dis- 
prove such testimonies as might be afterwards brought for 
Father Garnett), which letter did indeed so clearly prove 
him innocent in that former dealing with Spain, whereof 
there were more likely presumptions against him than 
about this Powder Treason. 

The cause and manner of writing this letter was 
this. Mr. Thomas Winter had confessed that six gentle- 
men were acquainted with that Plot, but could say 
nothing of Father Garnett, that he did so much as 
know of it. Mr. Tresham acknowledged in his first 
examinations that himself was acquainted with it, vdlt, 
that money and men should have come from thence ; 
and being found more fearful and easy to be wrought upon 
than the rest, he was urged to confess Garnett to be privy 
thereunto; to which he answered, "Perhaps he was." On 
which words reflecting afterwards when he lay in extremity 
of sickness in the Tower, and prepared himself to die, he 
thought the Council would take advantage against Father 
Garnett by that which he had said : therefore before his 
death he caused his man to write in his name unto the Earl 
of Salisbury, protesting upon his salvation, that Mr. Garnett 
was not acquainted therewith, &c, as before was set down 
out of the letter read. This letter he was not then able to 
sign himself, he was so weak at that time, and therefore 
caused his wife to do it, and commanded her, as she would 
answer it before God, to deliver it to my Lord of Salisbury, 
for the discharge of his conscience ; but afterwards growing 



the Gunpowder Plot. 261 

somewhat better, he did call for the writing again, and 
signed it with his own hand. And his wife after his 
death, because she could not be admitted to come to my 
Lord of Salisbury, inclosed it in a letter of her own, and 
sent it to his Lordship. And the man that wrote this 
letter, being afterwards taken by Sir William Wade, 
Lieutenant of the Tower, for fear of his threats, affirmed 
his master had written the letter himself (not daring to be 
known, that he had written it at his master's appointment), 
but afterwards being at liberty, he went to the Recorder 
and affirmed before him, that it was his master that had 
caused him to write it, and had himself subscribed it : and 
for this the man was committed to a close and strait 
prison, to Bridewell, the worst prison about London. 

Notwithstanding all this, upon the reading of this letter, 
my Lord of Salisbury presupposed it as granted that Mr. 
Tresham did mean to equivocate in this letter, which the 
good Father did not contradict, not observing perhaps the 
circumstance of Mr. Tresham his words before alleged, 
which was no marvel, being clean wearied out with so long 
standing at the bar, and answering to every man's questions 
before, which more concerned himself; and himself so often 
interrupted in his own discourse, that it was misliked by 
divers of the standers-by ; yea, the King himself, who was 
there in private, sent word at length to my Lord of 
Salisbury, he should give the prisoner leave to speak freely. 
My Lord of Salisbury therefore took occasion upon this 
supposition to speak at large, and said, though he would 
not meddle with Mr. Garnett in matters of divinity, yet 
because he had been particularly employed in that service, 
he desired to demonstrate with what sincerity and modera- 
tion His Majesty's justice was carried in all points. And 
so he discoursed of the manner of the proceeding therein, 
and said it was not performed with such solemnity in 
respect of Garnett, who was but a private man, but to 
discredit in his person his religion, and to credit the 



262 A Narrative of 

Gospel, and also to show the King's just proceedings to the 
world, and withal to favour the City of London, in doing it 
in the sight of the city. Then he showed how gently Father 
Garnett had been used, more like a nurse-child than other- 
wise, and that in this arraignment divers things had been 
permitted to be read, which made for Father Garnett ; as 
namely this testimony of Mrs. Vaux, who, said the Earl, 
would sacrifice her life to do him good. And so he con- 
cluded, affirming that the whole course of proceedings 
in that matter had been mixed with such clemency, 
as he thought there was none so malicious that could 
calumniate. My Lord of Northampton also made a speech 
much to the like effect, to show the foulness of the Plot 
of Powder, the just and merciful proceedings of the King, 
and the presumptions of Father Garnett his being guilty. 

Which done, the jury was willed to go together, and 
Father Garnett, ere they departed, desired them they would 
take such things as he had denied, to be justly and truly 
disavowed, except they had more evidence to the contrary ; 
and desired them to give their verdict only upon that 
which was acknowledged to be true, and not upon any 
other presumptions. And so indeed (by God's providence) 
it was performed : for they went together for a short time, 
and presently returned and pronounced him guilty directly 
for not revealing this treason. 1 

He was then asked whether he had any more to 
say for himself, and my Lord of Salisbury told him it 
was the King's pleasure he should have free leave to 
speak (but this leave was pronounced very late, after so 
many hours of continual interruption). The Father 
answered he had no more to say but God save the 
King ; and referred himself to the mercy of God and the 
King, and that he desired their Lordships to recommend 
his cause unto His Majesty, whom if it would please to 
grant him life, he would labour to deserve it the best he 

1 Which was indeed. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot 26 



o 



could, his conscience reserved. If otherwise, he was pre- 
pared to die. 

Then Serjeant Crooke prayed judgment might be 
given. The crier was willed to proclaim silence. The 
Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Popham, pronounced sentence 
of judgment against him, which was, to be hanged, drawn, 
and quartered. 

The Earl of Northampton made a second speech to 
this effect unto the prisoner. "Nothing is, that hath not 
been : nor nothing hath been, that is not. That all which 
hath been spoken this day might be rightly understood, 
you are condemned hot for religion or your profession ; 
but for treason verified by pregnant proofs. It is necessary 
to look into the ground of this action and safety of the 
King ; which by the Scripture is sufficiently commanded 
and proved, that there is no cause sufficient to depose 
Princes, neither tyranny, nor adultery, nor idolatry, nor 
apprehending of Priests, nor simony, nor heresy, nor 
apostacy. No power upon earth can dispossess him. 
That Popes have attempted it sometimes, hath been abuse 
crept in within these five or six hundred years, but the 
ancient Popes would never do it, yea, St. Gregory calleth 
the Emperor, his Lord. No man may lay hands upon the 
King, as is proved by many examples in the Old 
Testament. You are commanded in the New Testament 
to obey your Princes ; and so all the ancient Fathers teach. 
For the Prince's life is in no man's power, but in the hands 
of God Himself. All examples of Scripture prove you 
■ought not to touch his body, but to persuade his soul. 
You allege the Canon of Nos Sanctorum to prove it in the 
Pope's power to depose Princes for some causes ; but it 
never can be proved lawful by any learning or law for this 
1600 years. Therefore whosoever doth maintain it, is in 
.a foul and most gross and grievous error." 

This was about six or seven o'clock at night. Then 
the Court broke up ; and Father Garnett being con- 



264 A Narrative of the Gttnpowder Plot. 

demned to die was returned back to the Tower until 
the day of his execution. The King as he went 
from the place of trial, where he had been in private, 
was heard to say, they had done the prisoner wrong 
to interrupt him so often ; and also, that if he had been 
in the prisoner's place he could have defended himself 
better in some points. The Protestants were generally much 
appalled at the beginning of Father Garnett his speech, 
and some that came from the hall said, that never any 
man did speak so at that bar. But towards the end, they 
did weary him exceedingly with so many interruptions and 
interrogations. But it did comfort the Catholics much that 
he was condemned only for concealing the treason which 
he had only heard in confession ; and consequently his 
condemnation and death was only for concealing con- 
fession, which is a most happy cause, and the case of a 
martyr, as all the Catholics did then account him, and as 
the justice of his cause did then approve him : and God 
hath since his death declared by diverse signs, of which I 
will afterwards speak in their fit place. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OF THE ARRAIGNMENT AND EXECUTION OF FATHER 
OULDCORNE AND THOSE THAT SUFFERED WITH HIM, 
AND OF THE OCCURRENCES THERE, WITH A BRIEF 
RELATION OF HIS LIFE. 

Whilst Father Garnett was kept as yet in the Tower and 
the expectation great 1 what would become of him, not only 
of all the people, but of many principal persons also (the 
resolution of the Council concerning him being known to 
very few), and whilst, in the meantime, the whole afflicted 
company of his friends and spiritual children did join 
in earnest prayers unto God for him ; whilst this was 
the thought and the business of the poor distressed 
Catholics, it was determined by the State that Father 
Ouldcorne should be sent into the country, where Father 
Garnett and he were taken, there to be arraigned, 
condemned, and executed. Wherein assuredly the pro- 
vidence of God, and His sweet disposition was plainly to 
be seen both towards the good Father himself and all the 
Catholics of that shire. For doubtless a more grateful thing 
could not have happened to that Father than to suffer 
in that place where he had laboured so long, and now to 
water those plants with his innocent blood which he had, 
with the help of God's grace, so carefully planted, and so 
many years watered before with Catholic doctrine and 
instructions of good life. Neither could anything have been 
provided more profitable or pleasing to that country than 
to have him die amongst them, whom in his life they did 
so highly and so worthily esteem, and to see his constancy 
at the end of his course, whose virtues they had seen and 

1 In every place. Erased in Orig. 



266 A Narrative of 

admired in so many years' conversation. Briefly, they 
might well and did esteem it a great happiness to see him 
go to a crown of glory who had assisted so many of them 
to the obtaining of grace, "ut coronati essent in miseri- 
cordia et miserationibus." 1 And so to have him a patron 
to their country for time to come who had been a pattern 
to them in the way of virtue whilst he walked amongst 
them. 

This good Father, therefore, about the midst of Lent 
was sent from the Tower towards the county of Worcester, 
and with him Mr. Thomas Abington, in whose house both 
Father Garnett and Father Ouldcorne were taken ; with 
them also Mr. John Winter, the youngest of the three 
brothers, who was before condemned when his brothers and 
the rest of the conspirators were condemned, but was not 
executed with them, because the Council would have some 
of them executed in the country for the greater terror ; and 
rather this than the rest, because he was no actor about the 
Powder, but only a party in the rebellion, which, therefore, 
was thought fittest to be punished where it was performed : 
and withal it was the rather deferred until this time of 
Father Ouldcorne his execution, to make a show unto the 
people that Father Ouldcorne was to be touched with the 
same conspiracy or rebellion for which it was known the 
other suffered. With him also was sent down Ralph , 2 
of whom I spake before, who had for some years faithfully 
served Father Ouldcorne in his spiritual business and 
negotiation for souls, and was taken with him, and brought 
up to London with him, and had suffered torture in the 
Tower with him, and now was carried down with him, and 
was to go to Heaven with him. 

As they went through Holborn, going out of London, 
Mrs. Abington 3 did meet her husband, Mr. Thomas 

1 That they might be crowned with mercies and compassion (Cf. Ps. iii. 4). 

2 Ralph Ashley, for eight years Father Ouldcorne's servant, is believed, 
like Nicholas Owen, to have been a Lay-brother of the Society. — Ed. 

3 The Lord Mounteagle's sister. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 267 

Abington, and, with many tears, took her leave of 
him, but yet promised to labour earnestly with the 
King for his pardon, which she hoped to obtain the 
rather by her brother's means, who was the Lord Mount- 
eagle, now in special favour, as you may guess, being 
the man that had discovered the Plot of Powder. 1 Mr. 
Abington wished her to be of good comfort, for himself 
was not troubled ; and withal, willed her to put His 
Majesty in mind how he had suffered four years' imprison- 
ment for his good mother, for whom also his elder brother 
was executed, and that himself had never undutifully 
thought against him or his in his life. They were all 
carried down to Worcester like prisoners, and prisoners 
supposed to be guilty of most heinous treason, and their 
usage by the way and at their coming to Worcester 
answerable thereunto. 

They were arraigned at the Lent Assizes, which is a 
Court of public justice holden twice a year in every county 
for the trial, as well of country causes in law, as for life and 
death, touching all such malefactors as are taken and do 
belong to those shires in which the Assizes are holden. 
Therefore, at the Lent Assizes at Worcester were brought 
to the bar Father Edward Ouldcorne and Ralph , also 
Mr. Thomas Abington and Mr. Humphrey Littleton, of 
whom I have declared before that he was the man in whose 
chamber Mr. Robert Winter and Mr. Stephen Littleton 
were taken. In which respect this Humphrey Littleton, 
hoping to deliver himself from danger of the law (upon 
the large promises that were contained in the proclamation 
to any that would be the means of taking Father Garnett), 
discovered Mr. Abington his house, where both Father 
Garnett and Father Ouldcorne were taken. And yet it 
was not God's will he should for so evil a deed have his 
expected pardon, for his greater good, as it is to be hoped, 
for, seeing worldly hopes and promises to fail him, he 

1 As you might read in the beginning. Erased in Orig. 



268 A Narrative of 

sought for mercy 1 at God's hand, and became very penitent 
for his fault and frailty showed in that discovery. Mr. 
Abington was indicted and condemned upon the statute 
of relieving Priests, although he did allege for himself that 
which had been sufficient to clear him, vdlt. t that he was 
absent from his own house, and who might come in his 
absence he knew not, nor could hinder ; and, before he 
came, they were so shut up and besieged in secret places, 
that they could not be gone ; therefore he, neither being 
cause of their coming nor staying, could not justly be 
found guilty of that penal statute. But they knew so well 
his constant love to Catholic religion (which had been 
so often times and so well tried before), and his devotion 
also and respect unto Priests was so well known unto them, 
that they made no scruple at all to presume that those two 
Fathers were there with his approbation and good liking ; 
in which respect they doubted not to condemn him as 
guilty, although, before the time of execution, there came 
a reprieve from London, obtained by his wife and the Lord 
Mounteagle of His Majesty; and so his life remaineth still 
at the King's pleasure, and his lands and goods forfeited : 
which lands of his, because they should have returned to 
his heirs in case he had been put to death (this statute 
being but of felony and not of treason), they might be a 
motive to save his life, that so the gain might be greater 
by his life than by his death it could be. 2 The gentleman 
showed great constancy, courage, and devotion at the 
receiving his judgment, as he had often done before in his 
examinations and conventions before many several com- 
missioners for the cause of religion, where at all times he 

1 "Where it is ever found by those that seek it with a penitent heart, which 
he did, and acknowledged his fault to be exceeding great in betraying those 
Fathers. And both there publicly in the Shire Hall did ask Father Ouldcorne 
publicly forgiveness and again at the time of his execution, acknowledging 
that he had done both them and all the Catholics of England great wrong in 
being cause of their apprehension. Erased in Orig. 

2 I am uncertain whether he was condemned of felony or treason, because 
of harbouring a proclaimed traitor, In marg. in another hand. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 269 

did answer with such learning, judgment, and sufficiency 
(being a man of great reading and of a very good under- 
standing), that his adversaries were generally unwilling to 
deal with him in that kind. And several Bishops of 
Worcester (to whom he had been prisoner) 1 had received 
diverse foils at his hand both in private and public 
conferences. 

Mr. Humphrey Littleton was indicted and condemned 
of high treason, for receiving and harbouring the two 
gentlemen before named, Mr. Robert Winter and Stephen 
Littleton, who were proclaimed traitors. He acknowledged 
that fact, which he could not deny, but yielded he had 
much more deserved death for his treason to God in 
betraying his servants those two good Fathers, than in 
any ill intention he had unto the State, in not delivering 
up those two for whom he was condemned. 

Father Ouldcorne his indictment was so framed that one 
might see they much desired to have drawn him within 
the compass of some participation of this late treason ; to 
which effect they first did seem to suppose it as likely that 
he should send letters up and down to prepare men's 
minds for the insurrection. But for this they had no other 
ground but that he was a man so much esteemed by the 
best Catholics in those parts, and those countries were the 
place which it seemed the conspirators did most trust upon 
for assistance. They also did seem to think that he had 
written some letters for the relief and conveying away of 
Mr. Robert Winter and Mr. Stephen Littleton after their 
rebellion, and before they came to Humphrey Littleton's, 
where they were apprehended. Also, they accused him of 
a sermon made in Christmas, wherein he should seem to 
excuse the conspirators, or to extenuate their fact, and, 
withal, that speaking with Humphrey Littleton in private 
about the same matter, he should advise him not to judge 

1 And the Bishops of Worcester in particular (whose prisoner he had been 
before that). Erased in Orig. 



270 A Narrative of 

of the cause, or to condemn the gentlemen by the event, 
alleging some examples and authorities to prove that God 
doth not always give present success to such causes as 
yet He doth approve and will afterwards prosper. " Sed 
nullam istarum causarum poterant probare, Patre ratio- 
nem reddente, quoniam neque in Legem, neque in Regem 
quicquam peccavit." 1 

And for the first, being a mere supposition, without any 
proof or instance to be alleged, it could not have any force 
against him, whereas his protestation was of great force in 
denial thereof, affirming seriously, upon his death and salva- 
tion, that he. never knew anything at all of that treason, and 
that he was as innocent thereof as the child new-born. And 
for the second, as they without proof did suppose that he had 
holpen to convey away Mr. Robert Winter and Mr. Stephen 
Littleton, being his ghostly children and dear friends, he 
cleared himself very sufficiently from so unjust an accusa- 
tion. But, withal, did prove very learnedly there at the bar, 
that if he had so done, yet he could not be justly condemned 
for that by any law, all circumstances considered of his 
estate and theirs, they having been reputed for so virtuous 
men before this error, and might justly be presumed to be 
very penitent now for this enterprise so unadvisedly under- 
taken. 2 For the last, he utterly denied he had spoken 
anything, either in public or private exhortations, to justify 
the attempt of the conspirators, and declared there what 
he had said and with what intention. And Mr. Humphrey 
Littleton, who had been his accuser in those points, did 
there publicly ask him forgiveness in the Shire Hall, and 
said he had much wronged him. 

But when none of these things could be proved against 
him, yet, being a Priest and a Jesuit well known to have 
gained many souls to the Catholic faith, he was found guilty 

1 But none of these causes could they prove, the Father showing that he 
had not sinned in anything, either against the law or against the King. 

2 In which case the gravest casuists of this time. Erased in Orig. 



tJie Gunpoivder Plot. 271 

by the jury and condemned by the judge to be hanged, 
drawn, and quartered, as in case of treason, and as blessed 
Father Campian and Father Southwell and others of his 
predecessors had been before him. He received the 
sentence with joy, and told them there in public that he 
had been tortured in the Tower five hours five several days 
together, one after another, which, if it were five hours at 
a time even one of the days (as his words were understood), 
then was it a most great extremity that he sustained. For 
one hour's torture will make the hands so swollen and so 
sore (besides the pain in the other parts of the body), that 
it is a very cruel thing, to put a man to the like the next 
day after. " Sed Deus non deserit sperantes in se, in quo 
omnia possumus." 1 

Ralph was also indicted and condemned, upon 

supposition that he had carried letters to and fro about 
this conspiracy. But they neither did nor could allege any 
instance or proof against him, and he solemnly protested, 
upon the salvation of his soul, that he had never known of 
the treason in the least degree. So that he could not be 
condemned nor suffer for any other cause but for the 
helping and assisting the good Father there condemned 
with him, in his spiritual functions. Which cause, as it 
was glorious in itself, so for it the good and virtuous man 
did very gladly accept both sentence of death and death 
itself, as he showed most apparently after, when he came 
to his execution. 

Thus they received all four sentence of death, but Mr. 
Abington was reprieved, and they three were kept in the 
jail together, with Mr. John Winter, until the next Monday 
after, which was the day of execution. In the mean time 
Father Ouldcorne added one gem more unto his crown by 
the conversion of an obstinate sinner, who was condemned 
to die for his notorious wickedness. This man " cum in 

1 But God, in Whom we can do all things, does not forsake them that 
hope in Him (Cf. Jud. xiii. 17). 



272 A Narrative of 

eadem damnatione esset, necdum tamen timebat Deum," 1 
but the very day before he was to die went singing and 
whistling up and down the prison, and jesting now with 
this man and then with another, which thing being 
observed by Mr. John Winter, the young man, pitying 
much the lamentable state of soul of that poor heretic, 
began to admonish him that such neglect of his future 
account could not proceed but from a great blindness of 
soul and obduration of heart, affirming, withal, that in the 
Catholic religion he had been taught a much different 
manner of proceeding, especially at such a time. The 
careless heretic answered him he saw no cause to be sad, 
for he should be with the Lord before the next day at that 
time. Mr. Winter replied that he could not be sure of that, 
and that it depended much upon his care and penance 
and preparation in the mean time. The heretic replied he 
need not to take care for that which Christ had taken 
care for sufficiently. By which answer and manner of 
proceeding of this poor man, 2 one may plainly see the 
spiritual blindness 3 and desperate danger which heresy 
hath brought souls unto in this country, this being not 
only an opinion which some of them do hold, but an 
absolute point of their faith to believe, that they 4 shall 
certainly be saved, and that so soon as they are dead 
(because they believe no Purgatory). Yea, this is with 
them not only a point of faith, but their very justifying 
faith, by which, they. say, they must be saved without 
necessity of good works. Wherefore no marvel, though 
this poor fellow did out of that ground build his secure 
and careless proceedings, laying all upon Christ His back, 
wherein they pretend that they attribute much to the 
Passion of Christ, and that we dishonour the same by 

1 Being under the same condemnation, and not as yet fearing God (Cf. 
St. Luke xxii. 40). 

2 Blinded soul. Erased in Orig. 

3 The great blindness of heart. Erased in Orig. 

4 Are elected and. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 273 

requiring the necessary concurrence of our own coope- 
ration. 

Mr. Winter, finding the heretic obstinate, and yet 
seeing and pitying his lamentable estate, told him he 
was far wide, " but," saith he, " if you will talk with 
the Father that must die with you to-morrow, he will 
make it plain unto you that you are in error, and 
will show you the right way how to save your soul." 
The man answered he cared not with whom he talked, 
for he knew no man could prove him to be in error. Mr. 
Winter called the Father, who was retired to his prayers, 
and hearing of this- opportunity of doing good, came 
gladly, took the man aside, and began to catechise the man 
with such judgment, learning, and spirit, that he first led 
him out of the labyrinth of his errors, then taught him 
what was necessary for him to believe and know expressly, 
and in all the rest to 1 submit his judgment to the Catholic 
Church, which he proved unto him invincibly could not 
err nor lead into error. Then taught him how to prepare 
himself to become a member of that Church, and having 
instructed him how to examine his conscience carefully, 
sent him away to do it by himself, and promised that 
night to hear his confession. The man returned from the 
Father greatly satisfied and contented, and forthwith 
applied himself to his business, left all his companions, 
and got himself into a corner, there to recount his years 
so carelessly spent, and so little thought of before that 
time. His companions, wondering at this sudden alteration, 
came to invite him to be merry and drink with them, as he 
had before, but he sent them away with this answer, that 
he had serious business to think of. That night the 
good Father kept his promise, and reduced this stray 
sheep into the flock of Christ, supplying with his 
prudence and skill that which, in so short a time and 
so raw a scholar, was likely to be 2 imperfect in the prepa- 

1 Believe and. Erased in Orig. - Must needs be very. Erased in 0) ig. 
S 



274 A Narrative of 

ration of his penitent. Yea, he made good proof in this 
one patient how great dexterity and skill he had in the 
curing of diseased souls. For, with the effectual assistance 
of God's grace, he wrought this man's mind, not only to a 
constant belief of the Catholic faith, but to a fervent 
profession also of the same, and a public demonstration 
of a perfect conversion. For the next morning, when the 
Father was laid upon the hurdle and drawn to the place of 
execution, according to the use and the form of sentence 
which was pronounced, this neophyte, being led in company 
of other prisoners in a foot-path hard by the horse-way, 
when he saw his Father come by lying upon the hurdle, he 
suddenly slipped from the rest of the company and stepped 
into the horse-way and followed the hurdle directly, though 
the way were foul and no footman went in it but himself. 
The keepers and the rest of the prisoners called upon him, 
and asked him why he did so. He answered, he would 
follow his Father to his death, whom he hoped to follow 
after death to a better place. " Why," said they, " art 
thou become a Papist ? " " I am a Catholic," said he, " I 
thank God and this good Father, and so I mean to die." 
They replied that he was a notorious thief, and known to 
have committed many mischiefs. " It is true," said he, " I 
was so indeed when I was of your religion. I was then a 
Protestant and a thief, now I am a Catholic and penitent ; 
and as heresy was the cause of my disorders then, so 
now the Catholic religion is the cause and means of my 
repentance." And in this mind and manner of proceeding 
he continued till his death, to the admiration of all who had 
known his former courses, which gave occasion to divers to 
see and acknowledge the great difference between those 
trees which brought forth such different fruits. 

Father Ouldcorne, being come to the place appointed 
for their death, first with great fervour commended himself 
to Almighty God, to the Blessed Virgin, and to his patron, 
St. Jerome, to whom he was ever very much devoted. He 






the Gunpowder Plot. 275 

then declared unto the people that he came thither to die 
for the Catholic faith and for the practice of his function, 
seeing that they neither had nor could prove anything 
against him which, even by their own laws, was sufficient 
to condemn him, but that he was a Priest of the Society 
of Jesus, wherein he much rejoiced, and was ready and 
desirous to give his life for the profession of that faith 
which he had taught many years in that very country, 
and which it was necessary for every one to embrace that 
would save their souls. Then, being asked again about 
the treason and taking part with the conspirators, he pro- 
tested there again that he never had the least knowledge of 
the treason, and took it upon his death that he was as clear 
as the new-born child from the whole Plot or any part 
thereof. Then, commending his soul with great devotion, 
humility, and confidence into the hands of God and to the 
Blessed Virgin, St. Jerome, St. Winifred, and his good 
Angel, he was turned off the ladder, and hanging awhile, 
was cut down and quartered, and so his innocent and thrice 
happy soul went to receive the reward of his many and 
great labours. 

After him followed Ralph, his faithful follower and 
companion of his labours, who showed at his death great 
devotion and fervour, as may be guessed by this one action 
of his ; for whilst Father Ouldcorne stood upon the ladder 
and was preparing himself to die, Ralph, standing by the 
ladder, suddenly stepped forward and takes hold of his 
good Father's feet, embracing and kissing them with great 
devotion, and said, " What a happy man am I, to follow 
here the steps of my sweet Father!" And when his own 
turn came, he also first commended himself by earnest 
prayers unto God, then told the people that he died for 
religion and not for treason, whereof he had not had the 
least knowledge ; and as he had heard this good Father 
before him freely forgive his persecutors and pray for the 
King and country, so did he also. Then, before he was 



276 A Narrative of 

stripped of his clothes (which is usual to all such as are 
afterwards to be quartered, that their bodies may be the 
sooner cut up after they are laid upon the block), he, 
perceiving a Catholic maid of his acquaintance stand 
weeping by the gallows, he ungartereth himself, and, with 
dexterity, casteth them so unto her that others could not 
perceive that he did it of purpose. But the maid doth still 
keep the garters as great jewels, and thereby it may appear 
what opinion he had of his own innocency and the cause of 
his death. He showed at his death great resolution joined 
with great devotion, and so resigning his soul into the 
hands of God, was turned off the ladder, and changed this 
life for a better. 

At this time also suffered Mr. John Winter, who, as I 
have said, was condemned at London with his two brothers 
and the rest of the conspirators, but reserved to die at 
this time for reasons before declared in the beginning of 
this chapter. He died with great show of devotion and 
good state of mind, as might appear also by his fervent 
endeavours the night before to help towards the conver- 
sion of that soul before mentioned. He acknowledged 
the fact for which he died, to wit, that he had risen in 
arms and joined himself to the other conspirators ; but 
affirmed that he did it only to restore the Catholic 
religion : and so took his death patiently and with 
show of a contented, willing mind in respect of that 
intention. 

Then suffered also Mr. Humphrey Littleton, who, before 
his death, and before the Father was put to death, did 
there again ask him forgiveness, and said he had wronged 
him much : also he asked forgiveness of Mr. Abington in 
particular, and of all Catholics in general, in respect that 
he was the cause of the apprehension of the two Fathers at 
Mr. Abington's house, for which he acknowledged he 
deserved death much more than for the relieving of Mr. 
Robert Winter and his cousin, Mr. Stephen Littleton, for 



the Gunpowder Plot. 277 

which he was to suffer. He died with show of great 
repentance, and so with sorrow and humility and patient 
acceptance of his death made amends for his former frailty 
and too unworthy desire of life. 

There had also suffered the like death 1 for the same 
occasion, vdlt. y for relieving- of Mr. Robert Winter and Mr. 
Stephen Littleton before they were apprehended, one 
Perkises and his man in the same city of Worcester, the 
27th of January before 2 : and about the same time, for 
the same cause, two others in Wolverhampton : all which I 
suppose to have been Catholics, in that it was not likely 
those gentlemen would commit themselves to the fidelity 
of any others ; but as yet I cannot learn the certainty. 
That same Mr. Stephen Littleton was sent down into 
Staffordshire, to be tried and executed in Stafford, in 
respect that his house was in that shire where all the 
conspirators were last received, and where some of them 
were slain and the rest taken. For which assistance given 
unto the conspirators, and for joining with them in open 
rebellion, Mr. Stephen Littleton was condemned and exe- 
cuted. At his death he acknowledged the fact, and said 
he did it only for religion, for which he was ready and 
willing to die. He showed great resolution and devotion, 
to the satisfaction of all the country. 

With him were sent down twelve or thirteen others, 
some gentlemen, some serving-men, who were arraigned 
and executed in the same place, who, although they were 
taken with their masters being in rebellion, yet they stood 
unto it they did it only for religion ; and divers of them 
were offered their lives if they would go but once to 
heretical service, which they refused to do, and, conse- 
quently, died most happily, " eligentes potius absque opere 
incidere in manus hominum, quam peccare in conspectu 
Domini, et morientes propter justitiam regnum ccelorum 

1 In the same place and. Erased in Orig. 

2 After the old account. Erased in Orig. 



278 A Narrative of 

adepti sunt." 1 But as for Father Ouldcorne and Ralph, 
their case was so clear that no Catholics in all the country 
doubted to call them, and to call upon them presently as 
Martyrs, and did strive exceedingly for some part of their 
holy relics. Besides, Almighty God did testify by special 
signs the great merits of blessed Father Ouldcorne, which I 
think fit here to set down, after some brief rehearsal of the 
course of his life, so far as it hath come unto my knowledge. 
Father Ouldcorne was born in the county of York of 
honest and faithful parents, who brought him up in the 
Catholic religion, and in his young years kept him to school; 
so that he was a good grammar scholar when he first went 
over beyond the seas, which was about the twenty-second 
year of his age, and some twenty-seven or twenty-eight 
years ago. 2 He first studied in France in the English 
Seminary at Rheims some two or three years, and from 
thence was sent to the English College at Rome, where 
he remained 3 years. He heard his course of 

Logic, Philosophy, and years of Divinity, in 

all which he profited very well, being of a very good 
capacity. But his chief care and desire was to profit 
in spirit, which he did in such sort as was greatly to 
the satisfaction of all his Superiors, and the edification 
of the whole College. No man more careful to observe 
the rules, no man more forward to the practice of 
any mortification, often begging leave of his Superiors 
to go to hospitals and to serve in the kitchen, with other 
such like practices of humiliation, which he knew to be 
usual in the Society, unto which he had a vocation a long 
time before he could obtain his desire ; though he was not 
deferred for any want of liking which his Superiors had, 

1 Choosing rather without offence to fall into the hands of men than to sin 
in God's sight, and dying for justice's sake, they have gained the Kingdom of 
Heaven. 

2 Father Ouldcorne suffered April 7, 1606, set. 45. So Dr. Oliver. Father 
Gerard, infra, p. 285, says that he was "near fifty years old." — Ed. 

3 Seven, according to Father Henry More. — Ed. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 279 

either of his spirit or other talents ; but rather in their 
desire to further as many good spirits and sufficient men 
as they could to the end of the College, and to furnish the 
Clergy of England with able men against the time that 
God should please to have mercy upon our country. For 
the opinion his Superiors had of him was well declared in 
the particular choice they made of him, to send him into 
the kingdom of Naples and Sicily to negotiate for the 
College and to procure some alms, in a time of great want, 
when the College was far in debt, being overcharged with 
the number of scholars, more than their receipts were able 
to maintain ; and yet the charity of the governors thereof 
such, and the want of fit workmen in the English harvest 
so great, that they would not lose good spirits when they 
•offered themselves to that vocation. Father Ouldcorne, 
therefore, was sent about this business ; and did perform it 
with such discretion and fidelity, that he brought a good 
round sum of money unto the College at his return. 

In the year 1588, he and Father Gerard were received 
together into the Society by the Rev. Father Claudius 
Aquaviva, General of the same, upon the Assumption of 
our Blessed Lady ; and within five or six weeks after were 
sent together into England, in company with two other 
Priests who were not of the Society. By the way Father 
Ouldcorne gave very great edification unto all his company 
with his religious behaviour, showing in all his actions 
great humility and readiness to help and assist any of 
them in their needs. When they came to the sea-side, 
they understood of the extraordinary difficulty to pass into 
England, and of such persecution in England at that time, 
as had not been of long time before, the Earl of Leicester 
(who then ruled and overruled all under Queen Elizabeth) 
having made a solemn vow, that within a twelvemonth he 
would not leave one Papist in England ; but God with His 
mercy prevented the malice of that persecutor, and called 
him out of this life within half the time that he had limited 



280 A Narrative of 

for the life of others. But in the meantime he caused divers 
to be put to death, both Priests and others, and set watch 
and ward in every town, so that none could pass the country 
that were not known, and could not satisfy the officers 
of their dwelling and manner of life. In which regard 
those Fathers of the College where Father Ouldcorne and 
Father Gerard stayed whilst a passage was preparing, 
would not by any means let them pass, thinking it impos- 
sible they should land safely and get safely to London. 

Whereupon they wrote back to Rome, to know their 
Superiors' mind, yet with earnest suit that it might please 
them to permit their going forward. They received answer 
from Father Persons, that the times were much more 
periculous than was expected when they went from Rome, 
yet sith the cause was God's, and their will so good to 
prefer the safety of others' souls before the safety of their 
own bodies, they might in the name of God proceed, if 
their desire still continued ; but that it was left unto their 
own election. These letters were received with great joy, 
and the two Fathers, within few days after, got a ship 
wherein they embarked, thinking to have landed in the 
north parts of England ; but sailing along the coast of 
England one evening, and seeing a shore where they might 
be set on land, and no town nor house near them to see 
where they landed, they resolved to commit themselves to 
the providence of God, and caused the sailors 1 to cast 
anchor until it was dark, and then in a cock-boat to set 
them on land. When they were landed, having first 
commended themselves to God, they purposed to have 
gone forward in the first way they could find, to get as far 
from the sea-side before morning as they could ; but they 
found that every path did lead them to some house or 
other, where the dogs making a noise, 2 they durst proceed 
no further in that course ; but got them into a wood, and 

1 Shippers. Erased in Orig. 

3 And finding it so in two or three trials. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 281 

there stayed all night, whilst it rained a good pace. But 
yet they were as merry as might be, and well contented 
with their wet lodging, as I have heard one of them affirm 
from whom I have these particulars. Towards day they 
commended their business earnestly to God, and, after 
their prayers, resolved not to adventure both to go one 
way to London, but to take several courses, that so if one 
were taken in the time of danger, the other might scape. 
They therefore looked into their provision of money, and 
he that had more gave it unto the other to make it equal, 
and then they embraced and gave one the other their 
benediction ; and one . went out on the one side of the 
wood, the other went out of the other hand. They never 
had been in that country before, nor knew any one person 
in the country, nor the way to London, where they 
promised to meet. But God provided for them both. • 

Father Ouldcorne joined himself to some company that 
he found travelling that way, and being himself of an 
excellent wit and very sociable in company, he did so 
join those companions that they desired his company to 
London, and so they, being known in the way, did pass 
freely through watch and ward, and he also as one of 
their company was permitted to go without any further 
questions. Father Gerard was stayed by the watch in 
the first town he went through, and was carried by the 
watchmen to the chief officers of the town, who were then 
at their heretical service (it being Sunday morning). These 
officers willed the watchmen to bring him into service, and 
afterwards they would examine him. But Father Gerard 
refusing to go into their church, the officers were the more 
displeased, and sent twice or thrice commanding him to 
come in. But in the end, when they saw he would not, 
they were glad to come out to him, and examined him of 
many particulars, unto which he answered readily ; yet 
they threatened to send him to the Commissioners of the 
shire. And when he expected no other but to have been 



282 A Narrative of 

sent first to them and then to prison, these officers said, 
" He looks like an honest man. Let him go ; we will not 
trouble him." That first danger being past, he came 
safely unto the city that was the chief of that shire ; and 
there, by special providence of God, did light into the 
company of some Catholics, and at last came acquainted 
with one gentleman of good worth, who provided him a 
horse and fit apparel for travel in that country, and 
carried him out of the city in his own company and to 
his own house ; from thence let him have horses and a 
man with him to London, so that he passed very safely. 
And this gentleman sent earnest request unto his Superior 
that he might return into that country, which he granted ; 
•and so Father Gerard stayed a long time in that gentle- 
man's house, who was his first host, and by his means 
got acquaintance in all that country and the countries 
thereabouts. 

Father Ouldcorne and he met at London according 
to their first appointment, and by good hap found the 
Superior then at London, though his ordinary abode were 
then in Warwickshire, almost a hundred miles from 
London. There were then no more of the Society in 
England but Father Henry Garnett, the Superior, and 
Father Robert Southwell, who was since martyred about 
eleven years ago, 1 and Father Weston, who was then in 
prison, 2 where he remained until this King's time, for the 
space of seventeen or eighteen years, and then was 
banished with divers other Priests. So that at liberty 
there was no more but Father Garnett and Father 
Southwell, and these two Fathers last come, of which 
Father Gerard was sent back to the country where they 
landed, and Father Garnett took Father Ouldcorne with 
him into the country where he remained. And there he 

1 Father Southwell was executed February 21, 1595, set. 34. — Ed. 

2 Father Weston was apprehended in 1586, and, after imprisonment in the 
Clink, was sent to Wisbech Castle in 1587. In 1598 he was prisoner in the 
Tower of London, and he was banished in 1603. — Ed. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 283 

employed him in divers missions round about, 1 and found 
him so practical and industrious that he doubted not to 
send him to the most difficult enterprises. Amongst the 
rest there was one gentlewoman, 2 sister unto a very honest 
Catholic gentleman, their great friend. But this gentle- 
woman was an heretic, and could not by any reasons or 
persuasion be reduced from her errors, though divers 
Priests had talked with her and much labour had been 
spent in vain about her. But no doubt she was reserved 
for Father Ouldcorne, for he being sent unto her, within 
a few days brought her to be a perfect Catholic ; and 
afterv/ards she continued ever so devout that she did 
more good than any Catholic in all the country, and 
with her Father Ouldcorne did chiefly remain for sixteen 
or seventeen years together. In which time of his abode 
in those parts it is not easy to be believed how many 
obstinate heretics he converted, how many weak Catholics 
he confirmed, how many scholars he sent over to the 
Seminaries and religious women to monasteries, how many 
houses he brought to that degree of devotion that he 
might and did settle Priests in them. Indeed, I may 
safely say of him, without amplification, that "in illis 
partibus totas fere fundavit rexitque ecclesias domesticas." 3 
Yea, in my knowledge, he assisted Father Garnett also 
with yearly provision of money, procured from his own 
acquaintance, towards his charges and maintenance of 
others, when the Society grew to be there of greater 
number. All the chiefest gentlemen and best Catholics of 
the country where he remained, and the countries adjoin- 
ing, depended upon his advice and counsel, and he was 
infatigable in his journeys. I neither do nor have known 
any one Priest in England that did go so many journeys 
as he did, especially towards the latter end of his time, 

1 The place where he remained. Erased in Orig. 

3 Her name is given by Father More as Dorothy Abington. — Ed. 

3 He founded and governed nearly all the domestic churches in those parts. 



284 A Narrative of 

when he grew to be acquainted in so many places, and so 
much esteemed in all places, that he could never almost 
stay three days at home but he should be sent for. 

Yet was he for many years together of very weak 
health, proceeding partly of his pains-taking and partly of 
study, unto which he was very much addicted, and spent 
in it almost all the time that he had free from needful 
business. By which means about some eight or nine years 
ago he did spit blood in great abundance, but being 
very carefully tended and provided of all helps needful 
in such a case, he recovered ; yet afterwards, with his 
like labours and earnest manner of preaching (in which 
he had a very good talent, though his voice were some- 
what hoarse and painful unto himself, yet audible unto his 
hearers), he fell again to spit blood three or four times, 
which brought him to that weakness that no man thought 
he could recover. And being much consumed, he grew 
to have a cancer in his mouth, which afterwards was 
miraculously cured, as himself did tell me the story in 
this very manner. 

When the physicians did give their judgment that 
the cancer could not be cured, but that he must 
have some parts of the roof of his mouth cut out, 
and some bones also, he resolved first to try what 
help he could have from St. Winifred, a notable Virgin 
and Martyr, who hath in those parts a well famous for 
many miracles, where she was beheaded. Thither did 
Father Ouldcorne resolve to go on pilgrimage before he 
tried any further physic. And in his journey coming to 
a Catholic house, where he meant to celebrate, he found 
upon the altar divers relics, and amongst the rest a little 
stone of St. Winifred's Well with drops of blood upon it 
(as many of the stones have that are taken up in that 
well and in the current that runs from it). This stone 
Father Ouldcorne took and went aside into a place by 
himself, and fell earnestly to his prayers, desiring St. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 285 

Winifred's help for his health, if so it were best for the 
service of God. Then he put the stone into his mouth 
and held it there some time, and behold within half an 
hour his mouth was perfectly well. He went forward to 
St. Winifred's Well, and there also recovered the strength 
of his whole body, and returned home so strong and in 
such sort that all wondered exceedingly. And after this 
time 1 he was more able to endure pains than he was 
before ; and whereas once a year, commonly about the 
same time, he did usually grow weak and enter as it 
were into his consumption together, he used then no 
other physic but to -go to St. Winifred's Well, whence 
he ever returned with perfect strength and health, which 
lasted him until that time twelvemonth again. All which 
particulars I set down as himself did recount them unto me. 

Thus he continued his labours until it pleased Almighty 
God to call him to receive a full reward for his so faithful 
service and fruitful endeavours : at which time he was near 
fifty years old. 2 The manner of his apprehension with 
Father Garnett, also of his strict examinations and cruel 
tortures received in the Tower, I have set down in the 
former chapters, and in this chapter I have declared how 
he was carried down to Worcester and there condemned 
and executed in the place which of all others he would 
have chosen, if he might have had his wishes, "Domino 
voluntatem faciente timentium se." 3 

After his death it pleased Almighty God to testify 
his fervent charity and received crown of glory by these 
two notable signs. For, first, the place where his bowels 
were cast into the fire (as the custom is), being in the 
open field and subject to rain and all injury of weather, 
yet did the fire continue burning there, and could not 
be extinguished for sixteen or seventeen days together, 

1 (As himself did constantly affirm unto me). Erased in Orig. 

2 And his head full of grey hairs, the rather occasioned by his much loss of 
blood before mentioned. Erased in Ori& 



3 Our Lord doing the will of those who fear Hi 



im. 



286 A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 

until at last the town of Worcester, fearing a miracle, 
did send to put it out with violence. But they could not 
hinder the people from seeing the wonder to be great, 
and more than natural, giving unto Catholics just cause 
to remember with what zeal of burning charity he had 
for the like number of years sought to enkindle their hearts 
with heavenly fire, like the true disciple of Him that said, 
" Ignem veni mittere in terram et quid volo nisi ut ardeat." 1 
In like manner there was seen to grow within the 
court of Henlip (which is Mr. Abington his house, where 
Father Garnett and Father Ouldcorne were taken, and 
where Father Ouldcorne had for many years together 
deserved a crown of glory), a formal crown of grass, both 
higher and of different colour from the rest of the grass 
round about it. And the wonder was the more in respect 
that the gates of the house being broken down at the time 
of the search, and so continually standing open, and both 
swine and other kind of cattle coming in, yet none of 
them would either eat of that grass or did tread upon 
it to deface it ; yea, when neighbours did cut it down, 
in like manner as they had extinguished the fire, yet did 
it grow up again in like height and form as it was before, 
and so continued to the great admiration of all the country 
thereabouts. But it is to me much greater marvel that 
they will not open their eyes and see "quam mirabilis 
Deus in Sanctis suis." 2 I hope in God the time will come 
when the city of Worcester will see and acknowledge both 
the burning charity with which blessed Father Ouldcorne 
lived and died amongst them, and the crown of glory 
which he hath received at the hand of God for his faith 
so truly kept and his course so happily consummate. 
His life was holy ; his death saintly. God send us part 
of his blessed merits and intercession. 

1 "I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be 
kindled?" (St. Luke xii. 49). 

2 How "God is wonderful in His Saints" (Ps.l xxii. 36). 



CHAPTER XV. 

OF THE EXECUTION OF FATHER GARNETT, WITH A 
BRIEF RELATION OF HIS LIFE. 1 

After the condemnation of Father Garnett and the 
execution of Father Ouldcorne, they kept Father Garnett 
still in the Tower, to the marvel of many, from the time of 
his arraignment, which was the twenty-eighth of March, 
until the third of May. In the meantime there was of 
purpose spread many false rumours of his, that forsooth 
he would yield and go to church with heretics, and that 
they should see him preach publicly heretical doctrine, and 
such like ; all which things God knows were far from his 
thoughts, as he showed by his great constancy, and in 
express words also when he came to die. But this was 
done to diminish the great and w T orthy opinion which was 
conceived of him generally, and to cause some bad 
rumours to be spread of him in other countries before his 
death, that the truth itself, when it came to be opened by 
his constant suffering, might have the less credit, at least 
in some men's minds, where the contrary prejudicate 
opinion should be before settled. 

All this time, which God of His gracious providence 
gave unto the holy man for his better preparation and 
perfecting of his fervent and religious desires, his enemies 
also gave him good occasion to increase his merits, often 
soliciting him 2 to declare who was intended for Protector 
by the Catholics if the Plot had gone forward, whereby it 

1 And of the signs by which it hath pleased God to show his innocency and 
martyrdom. Erased in Orig. 

" To draw some other great person into. Erased in Orig. 



288 A Narrative of 

was thought likely that the Earl of Northumberland would 
have been deeply touched. And to this end it was 
constantly affirmed by some that knew much how things 
passed, that both life and favour were often and earnestly 
offered him, if he would have yielded in that point. But 
Father Garnett was far from any such base and unworthy 
mind : neither could he ever be brought to repair his own 
liberty with the ruins of others. 1 

Wherefore when it was plainly seen that there was 
no hope to draw him to anything unlawful or unfit for 
a Religious Priest, it was then determined presently that 
he should suffer. And the day was assigned to be the 
first of May, which being told unto Father Garnett, 
he misliked the choice they had made of that day, as 
well in regard it hath not been usual to put any to 
death upon such great Feasts, as for that it hath long 
time been a custom in England upon that day in the 
morning early, for the people to go into the fields and 
come home with green boughs in their hands in sign of 
joy, and to spend most of that day in triumph and 
pastime. To which effect Father Garnett made answer, 
"What, will they make a May game of me?" which 
words of his (as it afterwards proved) he was by God's 
providence directed to speak. For when it was told to the 
Council what he said, they saw it was not fit, and altered 
the day from Thursday, which was May-day, until the 
Saturday following, which was the Invention of the Holy 
Cross, and the day no doubt assigned by Almighty God 
for his martyrdom ; for, of all other days in that season, 
the martyr himself was most affected unto that, having 
ever had a special devotion unto the Cross and Passion of 
Christ ; wherefore as he misliked the unfit choice of the 
other day, so he rejoiced exceedingly at this election, and 
prepared himself gladly to find this cross which God 

J This may be considered whether it be convenient to be left out. In 
mar?, in another hand. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 289 

would send him upon that day, and by that cross to 
find the way to Heaven. He showed himself a true 
disciple and follower of the Apostle "et gloriatus est 
in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi, in quo est salus, 
vita et resurrectio ejus, per quern salvatus et liberatus 
est" 1 

The manner of his preparation we cannot learn, all 
things being kept so close in that most close and strict 
prison, where none but his only keeper could possibly come 
to him ; and that keeper a most malicious naughty fellow, 
as before hath been showed. But we may well judge of 
his preparation by the effects of his well prepared mind 
and his cheerful carriage, which, in so grave a man, was a 
sign of great peace and contentment of mind. When the 
desired day was come, Father Garnett was brought down 
from his chamber in the Tower, where first there met him 
one of the cooks of the house, who used to provide him 
his meat, 2 and this man took his leave of him saying, 
"Farewell, good sir;" upon whom Father Garnett looking 
with a pleasant smiling countenance, said, "Farewell, good 
friend Tom, this day I will save thee a labour to provide 
my dinner." And going a little further towards the hurdle, 
there met him also the Lieutenant's wife to take her leave, 
who said, "God be with you, and comfort you, good 
Mr. Garnett, I will pray for you." To whom, with a joyful 
countenance, he gave thanks, saying, " I thank you, good 
madam, and for your prayers, you may keep them at this 
time ; and if it pleaseth God to give me perseverance, I 
will not forget you in my prayers." Then being brought 
unto the hurdle, there he was laid as the order is, having a 
black cloak somewhat long upon his other clothes, and a 
hat on his head. All the way as he was drawn (with three 
horses), he held his hands together, lifted up somewhat 

1 And he gloried in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom is his 
salvation, life, and resurrection, by Whom he is saved and delivered. 

2 Dinner. Erased in Orig. 

T 



290 A Narrative of 

towards Heaven, and kept his eyes shut for the most part, 
as a man in deep contemplation. 

The place of the execution was St. Paul's churchyard, 
on the west end, 1 over against the Bishop's house ; provided 
so by God, that as by his virtuous life and doctrine he 
had confuted heresy, so by his constant death he might 
confound both it and the teachers thereof. In that place 
there was a great scaffold made, and a gibbet in the midst 
of the scaffold. And such multitudes of people, noble and 
ignoble, so many standings set up by carpenters to hire 
out for money, that a mere place to stand on would cost 
twelvepence well ; and the party from whom I chiefly 
have many of these particulars (being a Priest of great 
credit and estimation) was glad to give twelvepence only 
to stand upon a wall. All windows were full, yea, the tops 
of houses full of people, so that it is not known the like 
hath been at any execution. When he was taken up from 
the hurdle, his arms being still unbound, there met him 
the Dean of St. Paul's and of Winchester, 2 with a 
company of other ministers. And the Dean of St. Paul's 
said unto him (both he and the rest having their hats in 
their hands and with great show of reverence), "Mr. 
Garnett, I am sent unto you from His Majesty, to will 
you, that now being in the last hour of your mortal life, 
you will perform the duty of a true subject, to which you 
are obliged by the laws of God and nature ; and therefore 
to disclose such treasons as you know intended towards 
His Majesty's danger and the commonwealth." By this 
it may appear they had often laboured him to confess 
something, and could never get anything in that kind, 
which moved them now again to make this last trial. To 
this Father Garnett answered, " Mr. Dean, it may please 
you to tell His Majesty, that I have been arraigned, and 

1 Side. Erased in Orig. 

2 Dr. John Overal, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and Dr. 
George Abbot, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. — Ed. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 291 

what could be laid to my charge, I have there answered, 
and said as much as I could ; so that in this place I have 
no more to say." 

Then the Dean and other ministers began to persuade 
him to a true and lively faith (meaning their own soli- 
hdian doctrine), but in this he cut them off quickly, 
desiring them not to trouble themselves, nor him ; and 
said that for his estate of soul he needed not their instruc- 
tions; he came prepared and was resolved. Which two last 
words are of themselves sufficient to convince all the 
slanders his enemies would fain have imposed upon 
him, and to declare what he had done in his private 
prison, whereof as yet we cannot learn the particulars. 
Then he was brought upon the scaffold, where there was 
both the Sheriffs of London, the Recorder, with the Deans 
and Doctors before mentioned, and some other petty 
officers, as also some Catholics of reckoning, and well- 
wishers, 1 all which he saluted very kindly and cheerfully. 

And first he asked whether there was not some place to 
pray; 2 but the Recorder began to say unto him, that he 
and others w r ere there by order from His Majesty, to bring 
him to remembrance of his treason, and that he should 
acknowledge he was justly condemned, and ask the King's 
forgiveness. To which he answered, he had not com- 
mitted any treason nor offence against His Majesty, nor 
was ever guilty of the Powder Treason in the least degree, 
but had earnestly dissuaded and sought to hinder both 
that and all other attempts against His Majesty ; neither 
could they condemn him for anything, but for not opening 
the secret of confession, in which only he had knowledge 
of that Powder Treason, and in which he had done 
according to his function, and therefore could not justly 
be condemned for it ; neither had any ways willingly 

1 Staying for him. Erased in Orig. 

2 And perceiving that there was no place of retiring, he began to speak of 
the present festivity of the Cross. Erased in Orig. 



292 A Narrative of 

offended His Majesty. But so far forth as this concealing 
of the treason (unto which he was bound in conscience) did 
any ways offend His Majesty or the State, he did ask 
them forgiveness with all his heart. 

Thereupon the Recorder taking hold, said to the hearers, 
"Do you hear, gentlemen? He asketh the King forgive- 
ness for the Powder Treason." To which Father Garnett 
answered, "You do me wrong: for I have no cause to ask 
forgiveness for that whereof I was never guilty, nor was 
privy to it in such sort that it may justly be imputed to me 
for concealing it." The Recorder then would gladly have 
made good his former speech with facing down the Father, 
and said : " What ! will you deny your own hand ? We 
have it under your hand, that you knew of it by other 
means than confession, that Greenway told you of it by 
way of consultation, and that Catesby and Greenway 
came together to be resolved of you." " No," said the 
Father, "Mr. Catesby never told me of any particular. 
And for Mr. Greenway, I knew it only, as I have said, 
by confession, which therefore I could not lawfully open, 
until now that I had leave so to do. Neither would I 
have named him as I have done, 1 but lest any might 
think him guilty of counselling or furthering in the matter, 
and 2 to the end the very truth might be known, because 
false reports make him thought more guilty than he is. 
What is under my hand I will not deny, but you shall 
never show my hand contrary to what I have spoken." 

The Recorder answered, " You do but equivocate, and 
if you will deny it, after your death we will publish your 
own hand, that the world may see your false dealing." The 
Father answered, " This is no time to talk of equivocation, 
neither do I equivocate. But in troth, in troth, you shall 
not find my hand otherwise than I have said." Which 
double asseveration did satisfy the hearers much, though 

1 In the matter. Erased in Orig. 

2 Further to be touched than he is. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 293 

he would not be satisfied that was resolved and prepared 
to contradict. Wherefore the Recorder said to one of 
his followers, " Let him see his own handwriting." " You 
cannot," saith the Father, " show me any such writing of 
my hand." Then he that should have had the note, said it 
was not there ; it was left at home (at which divers of the 
standers-by laughed in their sleeves). " No," saith the 
Father, "neither here nor at home you have any such." 

Then they asked him whether he had anything to say 
unto the people. He answered his voice was low and 
himself weak ; he doubted they could not hear him. But 
yet he 1 turned him to- the people and said, " Upon this day 
is recorded the Invention of the Cross of Christ ; and upon 
this day I thank God I have found my cross, by which I 
hope to end all the crosses of my life, and to rest in the 
next by the grace and merits of my Blessed Saviour. As 
for the treasons which are laid against me, I protest now at 
my death that I am not guilty of them, neither had know- 
ledge of the Powder but in confession, and then I utterly 
disliked it and earnestly dissuaded it. Yea, I protest upon 
my soul I should have abhorred it ever, though it had 
succeeded. And I am sorry with all my heart that any 
Catholics had ever any such intention, knowing that such 
attempts are not allowable, and to my own knowledge 
contrary to the Pope's mind. And, therefore, I wish all 
Catholics to be quiet, and not to be moved by any diffi- 
culties to the raising of tumults, but to possess their souls 
in peace. And God will not be forgetful of them, or of 
His promise, but will send them help and comfort when it 
is most to His glory and to their good." 

Then some one that stood near unto him, seeking 
to interrupt him, and saying, " But, Mr. Garnett, were 
not you married to Mrs. Ann Vaux ? " thereupon he, 
turning himself from the people to those about him, 
said, " That honourable gentlewoman hath great wrong 

1 Went to the side of the scaffold. Erased in Oris;. 



294 A Narrative of 

by such false reports. And for my own part, as I have 
been always free from such crimes, so I may protest 
for her upon my conscience that I think her to be a perfect 
pure virgin, if any other in England or otherwise alive. 
She is a virtuous good gentlewoman, and, therefore, to 
impute any such thing unto her cannot proceed but of 
malice." 

Then, no more being said unto him, he prepared 
himself to execution, and asked if he might be permitted 
to pray, to which was answered, he might. Then he kneeled 
down at the ladder-foot, and there prayed for a good space 
in devout and religious manner. Then he helped to strip 
himself of his cloth unto his shirt, which was somewhat 
long, and himself had also sewed down the sides thereof 
almost to the bottom, that the wind might not blow it up, 
which was noted by many as a sign of great modesty 
in the Father. About that time a minister seemed again 
to insinuate himself as desirous to speak unto him in way 
of exhortation, but the Father desired him to hold himself 
contented, and not to trouble him any further. 

And being upon the ladder, after he had made the 
sign of the Cross and desired the prayers of all good 
Catholics, one said unto him aloud, " Mr. Garnett, it is 
expected you should recant from your religion and 
become a Protestant," for so it was given out that he 
would do, and afterwards preach at Paul's Cross. The 
Father answered, " God forbid. I had never any such 
meaning, but ever meant to die a true and perfect 
Catholic." And then, looking upon the people with 
a pious and undaunted countenance, he wished them to 
consider well the state of their souls, assuring them, upon 
his conscience and salvation, there was no other way for 
their eternal bliss but to live and die in the profession of 
the Catholic faith. Then said the Dean of St. Paul's, 
" But, Mr. Garnett, we are all Catholics." " No, no," said 
Father Garnett, " you are not, for such are only Catholics 



the Gunpowder Plot. 295 

as live in unity and profession of one faith, under one 
supreme head of God's Church, which is the Pope's Holi- 
ness, and you must be all of the Catholic Roman Church, 
or you cannot be saved." 

Then he prayed for the King, Queen, Prince, the 
Council, and the whole State. Then he desired the 
hangman to give him warning before he did cast him off 
the ladder. Then, making the sign of the Cross with " In 
nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti," he said, " Ado- 
ramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi, quia per sanctam 
crucem tuam redemisti mundum;" 1 then, "Maria Mater 
gratiae, Mater misericordiae, tu nos ab hoste protege et 
hora mortis suscipe;" 2 then, "In manus tuas, Domine, 
commendo spiritum meum," 3 which he repeated twice or 
thrice ; then, 4 " Per crucis hoc signum (blessing himself) 
fugiat procul omne malignum. Infige crucem tuam in 
corde meo, Domine;" 5 then returned again to "Maria 
Mater gratiae, Mater misericordiae, tu nos ab hoste," 
&c. Then he told the hangman he was ready, and 
being desirous to carry the Cross with him out of 
the world imprinted in his heart, 6 he crossed his arms 
over his heart upon his breast, and so was cast off the 
ladder, and his arms continued so across as he had placed 
them (not being bound, nor he making any struggling at 
all with death) until he had rendered his spirit to his 
Redeemer. 

Neither was he cut down before he was perfectly 
dead. For the people was so much moved with his 

1 ' ' We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee, because by Thy holy 
Cross Thou hast redeemed the world." 

2 "Mary, Mother of grace, Mother of mercy, protect us from the enemy, 
and receive us at the hour of death." 

3 " Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." 

4 Again, " Maria mater gratiae, Mater misericordioe, tu nos," etc. Erased 
in Orig. 

5 "By this sign of the Cross, may all that is wicked fly far away. Fix Thy 
Cross in my heart, O Lord." 

6 (Unto which he was so much devoted). Erased in Orig. 



296 A Narrative of 

modesty, and so altered from their former hard conceits 
of him by the sight of his constancy, and by his protes- 
tation of innocency at his death, that they prevented 
the hangman with a loud cry that he might not cut 
him down too soon. Who thereupon, having permitted 
him to hang awhile, would then have cut him down when 
he presumed him to be half-dead ; but the people cried out 
again, u Hold, hold," and so again the third time, not 
permitting him to be cut down until he was thoroughly 
dead. Yea, and one of the citizens took him by the legs 
and pulled him to put him out of his pain, and that he 
might not be cut down alive. Which kind of favours are 
nothing usual when the people do presume men die for 
treason, and were not used to the gentlemen that suffered 
before, although men of good sort, and much beloved 
and esteemed before this enterprise. 

And it was much marvelled how the people durst 
do this so publicly, seeing the State so generally bent 
against Father Garnett in this cause. But most of 
them proceeded much further than this. For when 
he was cut up and his bowels cast into the fire, and 
his heart pulled out and showed unto the people 
with these words, which are ever used in such cases, 
" Behold the heart of a traitor," there was not heard any 
applause, or those that cried, " God save the King," which 
is always usual when the heart or head is holden up in 
that kind. 

Yea, so strange and unexpected an alteration there 
was in the very heretics themselves that some of them 
said, without doubt he was in Heaven ; others said, 
" He died like a Saint ; " others, that he looked not 
like a contriver of treason. Yea, and some ministers 
themselves were heard to say that questionless his soul 
was in Heaven. And, generally, the people went away 
much satisfied of his innocency and sanctity. 

The Priest, of whom I spake before, who saw and 



the Gunpowder Plot. 297 

heard most of these things, going down from his standing, 
went under the scaffold in desire to get some drops of 
his blood, which he did, and found divers there hunting 
for the same prey. Besides, his shirt was presently gotten 
by a person of great account, and most of his apparel 
also was redeemed by several persons, and are now 
esteemed of more than their weight in gold. 

One marvellous thing happened whilst his body was 
dividing on the block, about a straw or ear of corn, 
which did strangely leap out of the basket into which 
his head and quarters were cast as they were cut up. This 
straw did leap into the" hand of a Catholic, who stood by 
with great desire to get some part of the martyr's blood, 
but durst not be seen to take it. But, for that the 
chiefest marvel that concerneth this straw was not discerned 
at the first, but was discovered some days after, to the 
great comfort of Catholics and wonder of many: therefore 
I reserve it for the next chapter, as also some other marvel 
seen about Father Garnett's head. 

Now, therefore, having declared how he finished his 
holy life, 1 I will here set down so much of his whole 
course therein as I could learn from some of those that 
have been very inward with him, that it may the more 
plainly appear how his religious virtues did prepare and 
perfect him to this last conflict and conquest over the 
world. 

He was born in the county of Derby. His parents were 
well esteemed, and well able to maintain the charge of 
their family. His father was given to learning, insomuch 
that he made profession thereof, and taught Free School 
in the next shire-town, which was of Nottingham. 2 

1 With a happy death. Erased in Orig. 

2 The chapter is unfinished. — Ed. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

OF THE STATE OF CATHOLICS AFTER FATHER GARNETT 
HIS EXECUTION : HOW GOD DID COMFORT THEM 
WITH SOME MIRACULOUS EVENTS, AND HOW THEIR 
ZEAL INCREASED, NOTWITHSTANDING THE INCREASE 
OF PERSECUTION. 

It was certainly expected by the Puritans and enemies of 
the Catholic cause that, together with the death of Father 
Garnett, the hopes also and courage of Catholics would 
have died, and that, when they should see so chief a man 
so publicly arraigned and executed under the title of so 
foul a matter, none would after that adventure to deal with 
the Society, which was the principal mark at which they 
aimed, with all their solemnities and unwonted preparation 
in the foresaid passages both of his trial and death. But 
the wisdom of God (against which the wit of man doth 
labour in vain), having determined to conform His elected 
servants unto His own image, and that as well by pressures 
and crosses in this world as by rewards and crowns of glory 
in the next, hath ever used a contrary course to the 
expectation of His enemies, and doth not permit His 
Church by persecutions to be dejected, but doth rather 
dilate the palm-tree when it is suppressed, "et facit cum 
tentatione proventum ut possimus sustinere, educens nobis 
aquam de petra, oleumque de saxo durissimo." 1 And He 
that doth daily make the most barren and stony mountains 
to bring forth the sweetest oil for our corporal uses, much 
more for the good of our souls doth use to make sweet the 

1 And makes "with the temptation issue, that" we "may be able to 
bear it" (i Cor. x. 13), bringing forth for us "water out of the rock" 
(Ps. Ixxvii. 16), "and oil out of the hardest stone" (Deut. xxxii. 13). 



A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. 299 

yoke of persecutions with the oil of His grace and mercy, 
" computrescere faciens jugum a facie olei." 1 

Therefore much otherwise than was expected, this holy 
seed of Father Garnett's slaughtered body falling upon 
the earth did bring forth great fruit. His mortified and 
divided parts did quicken and unite the minds of many 
that were before distracted with fears and uncertain 
reports, and his innocent blood did water the field of 
Christ in this country, and brought forth a plentiful 
harvest ; yea, it did mollify the hearts of some that were 
before very hard to believe well of the Society, touching 
these imposed crimes. ' For although very many Catholics 
were before well satisfied of Father Garnett his innocency, 
and especially those that had dealings with him could not 
be ignorant how far he was from any such attempts, that 
laboured so much to suppress the least disorder in that 
kind ; yet generally the heretics were otherwise persuaded, 
giving credit to those reports that were everywhere bruited 
of him. And some friends also stood doubtful how far he 
might be touched therein, upon the constant asseveration 
of his guiltiness in the cause, and that also given out by 
persons of no mean account. But when they heard him 
clear himself so fully at his arraignment from all concur- 
rence or connivency in the matter, and perceived plainly 
he could and would have said much more in that place,, 
if he had not been so often interrupted of purpose to 
put him out, and to disturb both his own memory 2 and 
the understanding of his hearers. And when at his death 
they viewed his innocency, patience, and religious manner 
of suffering, and saw most apparently both by the one 
and the other that no one of the Society was to be 
touched with any help or furtherance, or any willing assent 
unto that conspiracy, nor any one of the Company 3 have 
had the least knowledge thereof by any means whatsoever, 

1 Making " the yoke "to " putrefy at the presence of the oil " (Is. xi. 27). 
8 The memory of the prisoner. Ei'ascd in Orig. 
3 Whosoever but he. Erased in Orig. 



300 A Narrative of 

but himself and that one Father from whom he had it, and 
they restrained by the secret of confession from opening it 
to others, and dissuading and hindering the same by all 
lawful means they could use. These things being plainly 
seen, and to be testified by so many witnesses as were 
there present both at his judgment and death, did fully 
satisfy all doubts, and clear the conceits of such as did 
before suspend their judgments of him. But especially 
when by his great patience and constancy seen at his 
death, his rare virtues did more appear, and his lamp, 
"quae erat lucerna lucens et ardens," 1 did show itself so 
much the more brightly, his earthly vessel being broken, 
to the confusion of his enemies, and increase of comfort 
and courage to the faithful soldiers of our true Gideon. 

Then, as I related in the last chapter, not only the 
Catholics and his friends that were beholders were much 
confirmed, and their tears turned into triumph for the 
victory which this champion of God had gotten of the 
slanders of the world and malice of sin and heresy, but 
many also of his enemies did bear witness of his inno- 
cency, "dicentes, Vere hie homo Justus erat," 2 and wished 
their souls with his. Such force hath truth, that it cannot 
be conquered, and innocency, that it cannot be con- 
founded. Well may it be oppressed for a time, but it 
cannot be suppressed ; " aporiamur, sed non destituimur, 
2 Cor. 4 . persecutionem patimur sed non derelinquimur, 
dejicimur sed non perimus." 3 Yea rather, in the greatest 
needs our merciful God doth send the greatest comforts, 
and where His enemies do think most to triumph over 
Him, there doth He ofttimes manifest the truth, and set 
forth His own glory and the innocency of His servants 
with most apparent signs. 

1 Which "was a burning and a shining light" (St. John v. 35). 

2 " Saying, Indeed this was a just man" (St. Luke xxiii. 47). 

3 " We suffer tribulation, but are not distressed : we are straitened, but are 
not destitute : we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken : we are cast down, 
but we perish not " (2 Cor. iv. 8, 9). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 301 

And so it happened in this case of Father Garnett : for 
whereas the Fathers that suffered before in Queen Eliza- 
beth's time were well known to all men to suffer only for 
their conscience, insomuch that although some matter or 
other were ever feigned to make it seem that they suffered 
for treason, yet the fictions were so palpable of matters 
never intended, nor so much as thought or heard of before 
the time they were objected, and those that were said to be 
joint-conspirators ofttimes so mere strangers that they never 
had seen or heard of one the other before : these apparent 
contradictions did make so manifest their innocent cause, 
that there need no divine testimonies to a truth so evident. 
But in this latter cause of Father Garnett, the case was 
somewhat different in the opinion of many, though his 
innocency the same, and the equity of his cause equal with 
the former. In this, it was very true, there was a real 
ground upon which the adversaries might raise a pretence 
of seeming truth in their accusation. There was a great 
and dangerous conspiracy intended and plotted and 
proceeded in by those gentlemen of whom I have before 
discoursed. Divers of these gentlemen were known to 
Father Garnett, and some of them had often used his 
help and the help of others of the Society in their 
spiritual affairs. And this matter also they had at 
length opened a little before it should have been 
executed unto two of the Society in the secret of 
confession, as I have before declared. Therefore in 
this case Almighty God did think it more needful 
in His divine providence to give testimony of His 
servant's innocency than in former times, when the 
cause itself was so plain, that it could not be con- 
tradicted. 

The first sign by which it pleased God to show the 

of the miraculous straw, merit and glory of this His martyr was 

concerning his relics, which were eagerly sought for by many 

Catholics at the very time of his martyrdom. Amongst the 



302 A Narrative of 

which there was one young man, 1 who 2 stood by the block 
where the martyr's body was cut up, with great desire at 
least to get some drop of his holy blood. 3 And whilst he 
had these thoughts, not daring to take where he desired 
for fear he might be espied, it fortuned that the hangman 
having cut off the martyr's head and showed it to the 
people (as the custom is), he cast it into a basket standing 
there of purpose, full of straw, to hold the head and 
quarters when they were divided. Out of this basket did 
leap a straw, or ear void of corn, in strange manner 
into the hand of this young man, which he beholding, 
and seeing some blood upon it, kept it with great care, 
and no little joy that he had obtained his desire. He 
carried it away safely and delivered it unto a Catholic 
gentlewoman 4 of his acquaintance, who kept it in a 
reliquary with great devotion ; and after three or four 
days, 5 a devout Catholic gentleman coming thither, she 
showed him the bloody straw, which he was also glad 
to see and reverence ; but beholding the same more 
curiously than the others had done, he saw a perfect 
face, as if it had been painted, upon one of the husks 
of the empty ear, and showed the same unto the company, 
which they all did plainly behold, and with no small 
wonder, but with much greater joy did acknowledge the 
mighty hand of God, Who can and doth often use the 
meanest creatures to set forth His glory, and is able 
both out of stones and straws to raise a sufficient defence 
for His faithful servants. 

They put up the straw again with great admiration, 

1 This was John Wilkinson, who afterwards became a student at St. Omers, 
and on his death-bed in that College dictated a narrative of Father Garnett's 
execution and the finding of the straw, which is given by Father More, Hist. 
Prov. Angl. S. J., lib. vii., n. 35.— Ed. 

2 Is now a scholar in the English College at St. Omers. Erased in Orig. 

3 In such sort as it might not be espied. Erased in Orig. 

4 Her name was Griffin. — Ed. 

5 Two or three months. Interlined in Orig. Wilkinson himself says, 
" Paucis post diebus." 



the Gunpowder Plot. 303 

and kept it now with much more reverence and devotion 
than before. This was quickly published to many of the 
chiefest Catholics about London, who much desiring - to 
see this wonder, it was carried unto divers, who all are 
witnesses of this truth. At length it came to the Council's 
ear, and some of them desiring much to see it, it was 
granted, being now in the keeping of a great person, 1 but 
with promise to have it safely restored ; so that some of 
them did see it, and did much admire it, affirming that 
it must needs be more than natural. Others after desired 
to see it and to seize upon it, because now the fame did 
grow so great of this image of Father Garnett drawn by 
the hand of God, whose image and memory they sought 
to deface in all they could, that they feared the evidence 
of the miracle would plead against their proceedings and 
prove him innocent whom they had punished as guilty. 
Therefore the Bishop of Canterbury 2 sought to have 
the miraculous straw into his hands, but it was denied, 
and none would acknowledge where it was to be found. 
He learned out the party to whom the keeping of it 
was first committed, and sent for her 3 husband, who was 
a known Catholic and a virtuous man. He examined 
him strictly how it came to pass, and where the straw 
was. The Catholic affirmed the truth of the thing, and 
described it unto him in words ; but said it was not now 
in his keeping, and he knew not where to find it. And 
when they could get no other answer of him, they com- 
mitted him to prison ; but afterwards, having sundry and 
great friends in the Court, he got out upon bonds to 
appear again at certain days' warning. 

In the meantime it happened that two were miracu- 

1 Father More says it was the Spanish Ambassador, and he gives an 
attestation of the Baron de Hobocque, dated in 1625, attesting that he had 
seen it in 1606, when he was in London as Ambassador of the Princes of the 
Netherlands. — Ed. 

2 Dr. Richard Bancroft. — Ed. 

3 The gentlewoman's. Erased in Orig. 



304 A Narrative of 

lously cured by application of the same straw. One was 
a gentlewoman in great peril of her life by danger of 
childbirth, who, when she had sustained long and painful 
travail and could not be delivered of her burthen, and 
now was out of hope of life, unless she might obtain 
some help from God, some of her friends made earnest 
means to get this holy straw to bring unto her; which 
being obtained, and the straw brought and applied with 
great reverence, presently she received help, and was 
delivered by the mighty hand of God and merits of the 
martyr, whom no midwife's skill or endeavours could 
help before. 

Another was the gentlewoman herself who first had 
this miraculous relic delivered her to keep. For she 
being very much subject to sickness, and sometimes in 
such extremity therewith that you would not think she 
could be able to live an hour, it happened that in one 
of her extremest fits, when she could find no medicine 
or means that could bring her any ease, she earnestly 
desired a special friend to make suit for the straw to be 
returned unto her for a small time, which was granted ; 
and as soon as it came (she receiving it with great devotion 
and reverence) she presently found ease, and within half 
an hour was so perfectly well that she rose from her bed, 
and went to entertain some strangers that then were in 
the house, and "erat una ex discumbentibus." 1 

This sudden and strange cure of hers being spoken 
of by divers Catholics, it came out to be known unto the 
Council, who sent again for the husband of the gentle- 
woman, and took this new occasion to commit him the 
second time to prison. 

The Council afterwards understanding that this mira- 
culous picture in the straw had been showed to divers 
painters in London, they sent for the painters, and willed 
them to make the like portrait to that which they had 
1 " Was one of them that were at table" (St. John xii. 2). 



the Gunpoivder Plot. 305 

seen in a like empty ear of corn ; but they all answered 
it was not possible for them to do it : neither could the 
draught of that face, in so little a room and so loose a 
groundwork as that empty ear, be otherwise drawn than 
by supernatural power. And this testimony they gave of 
it that had both skill to judge and no will to favour the 
Catholic cause (being in opinion heretics), but only con- 
vinced in their understanding by the evidence of the miracle. 1 

Another marvellous thing which it pleased Almighty 
God to show for a public testimony of the glory which 
blessed Father Garnett now possesseth, is a visible and 
apparent circle of red- about his head in the form of a 
crown, which was and is to be seen about his head, where 
it is set up, as the custom is, with the heads of others that 
died for treason. This hath had so many witnesses as 
would go to behold it, which were not a few, and besides, 
they did affirm that his face did continue so comely and 
w T ith so pleasing a countenance, as it seemed rather the 
head of a man alive than separated from the body ; and 
all his quarters also so purely white, that it was much 
admired by all that did behold them. 

To these I may adjoin the crown of grass which did 
grow in Mr. Abington his court, in the house where both 

1 Father Richard Blount, in a letter dated Nov. 8, 1606, says — "A Catholic 
person in London having kept, since the execution of Mr. Garnett, a straw that 
was embued in his blood, now these days past, being viewed again by the party 
and others, they espy in the ear of the straw a perfect face of a man dead, his 
eyes, nose, beard, and neck so lively representing Mr. Garnett, as not only in 
my eyes, but in the eyes of others which knew him, it doth lively represent 
him. This hath been seen by Catholics and Protestants of the best sort and 
divers others, who much admire it, &c. This you may boldly report, for, 
besides ourselves, a thousand others are witnesses of it." And in another letter, 
dated March, 1607, " It cannot be a thing natural or artificial. The sprinkling 
of blood hath made so plain a face, so well proportioned, so lively shadowed, 
as no art in such a manner is able to counterfeit the like.' 1 Father More, 
whose history was published in 1660, says that the straw was kept in the Jesuit 
College at Liege. The last mention we have met of it is by the Abbe Feller, 
in his Dictionnairc Historiquc, which was published at Liege in 1 797, and 
therefore after the suppression of the Society, "L'epi est aujourdhui entre les 
mains d'un de mes amis, qui le conserve soigneusement " (Art. Garnett). 
U 



306 A Narrative of 

blessed Father Garnett and blessed Father Ouldcorne 
were taken, which may be taken as a sign of his glory 
and crown of immortality as well as Father Ouldcorne's. 
And of this I spake sufficiently in the last chapter but 
one. I could hereunto add a vision which both of these 
blessed Fathers had in the Tower the 7th of March before 
their martyrdom, the very night before they were hung 
upon the torture. It happened in this manner. Father 
Ouldcorne in his sleep did seem to behold a very sump- 
tuous throne set up, with great care and cost adorned, at 
which sight when Father Ouldcorne much admired, not 
knowing to what end it should be prepared, it seemed unto 
him that there entered into the room the most 1 Reverend 
Father General, and with him some other ancient Fathers ; 
and that Father Ouldcorne did demand of Father General 
what should be the meaning or intention of that throne so 
much adorned ; and that the Father should answer that 
both Father Garnett and himself should presently be pro- 
fessed. To which Father Ouldcorne made answer that 
Father Garnett was already professed. Then Father 
General replied, he would now have him make a more 
excellent profession than before. This vision Father 
Ouldcorne the next morning told unto his keeper, desiring 
he would tell it unto Father Garnett, which he performed ; 
and Father Garnett assured him the very same thing, in 
the same manner, had also that night appeared unto him. 
But Father Ouldcorne did see it again the next night after. 
This was so generally spoken of in the Tower about that 
time, that if there had been no other means afterwards to 
know the truth, that alone had been sufficient to publish it. 
Now, when the other foresaid marvels were seen about 
his head after his martyrdom, and that the miraculous 
image of the straw was visibly seen by many Catholics, 
and generally known to all, you may well think that 
Catholics were greatly animated, receiving now, in their 

1 Our. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 307 

greatest distress, such comforts from the merciful hand of 
God, "qui est Pater misericordiarum et Deus totius con- 
solationis, qui consolatur nos in omni tribulatione nostra." 1 
And, indeed, the effect of these heavenly comforts was 
such in the hearts of poor afflicted Catholics, but especially 
the force of the martyr's blood and the merits of his 
innocent death (which now was plainly seen by all well- 
meaning men, and acknowledged by many also of his 
enemies, as before I have related), that whereas the 
Catholics did already feel a sharp shower of persecution 
in continual searchings and imprisonments and vexations 
much more than in former years they had experienced ; 
and whereas they might easily discern a greater storm 
coming towards them, seeing, as it were, a thick and dark 
cloud coming on apace, carried furiously with the wind in 
such sort that it was likely to spread itself over all their 
hemisphere, intending to make a destroying deluge, no less 
universal than violent : though they might plainly see 
and hear daily thundered in their ears what cutting and 
cruel laws were intended and prepared against the Par- 
liament which then was at hand : though they were assured 
beforehand that the penal statutes which then were to be 
enacted were so many and so merciless that their life would 
be more tedious (and terrible to many minds) than death 
itself: though they could find no friends that could or 
would now oppose themselves "murum pro domo Dei; 2 
the noblemen that were Catholics or esteemed friends to 
Catholics, together with all principal recusants, being 
clapt in prison ; and all others that before did seem to 
favour the cause now being blown away with this storm 
of persecution, and carried with the current of the present 
stream rather to oppose themselves against Catholics, both 
in word and action, than any ways to seek the release or 

1 Who is "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, Who com- 
forteth us in all our tribulation" (2 Cor. i. 3, 4). 

2 "A wall for the house of Israel" (Ezech. xiii. 5). 



308 A Narrative of 

relaxation of their present afflictions or prepared penalties : 
though all this, and more than I can in this place com- 
modiously set down, were felt and feared by the Catholics 
at this time, yet such was the goodness of God towards us, 
such the force of His grace obtained by the merits of these 
holy martyrs, that presently, upon the death of blessed 
Father Garnett, you might see his innocent blood had 
warmed all their hearts ; you might see in them a new 
fervour, expecting persecution with a peaceable and 
cheerful mind ; you might see them everywhere begin 
to prepare themselves neither to resist nor run away, 
but how to bear the blows of persecution with Christian 
patience. 

And although there were some few examples of human 
frailty, making choice rather to do against their conscience 
in going to heretical service than to adventure the loss 
of their earthly commodities, yet these were so few in 
number, and so followed afterwards with the remorse of 
conscience and the justice of God, that their example 
did rather confirm than weaken the constancy of other 
Catholics. I could hear but of three men of any note 
then fallen in that sort, whereof one was a knight, of a 
worthy family, and himself ever a devout Catholic ; his 
lady also, ever forward but much affected to those 1 men 
that would not at the first submit themselves to [the] 
Archpriest, whom His Holiness had appointed to be 
their Superior in England. This good gentleman, as I 
heard, having long paid the statute for his recusancy, 
which is 20/. a month, now upon this increase of 
persecution, and the commodity of his recusancy which 
should accrue unto the King being given unto a Scottish 
man, the Catholic gentleman offered him 2,000/. for a fine, 
and to pay the rent of 20/. a month, as he was wont to do 
beside ; but the Scottish man refusing to take his offer 
upon hope to make a greater gain of him, the knight would 

1 Party. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 309 

not endure to be made a prey to a man of so insatiable a 
mind, and therefore resolved for the time to forfeit rather 
the greater goods, the goods of grace, and said he would 
conform himself to the law. He went, therefore, to their 
heretical service, and saved the forfeiture of his worldly- 
estate, but with so great a torment of conscience that, 
poor gentleman, he fell into such fits of melancholy and 
distemper therewith, that it was generally given out that 
he was distract of his wits. 

There was another knight also, more rich in worldly 
substance than furnished with spiritual money to main- 
tain the war against ■ his spiritual enemies. This man, 
seeing persecution to come against him with double 
forces to the strength of grace which he had provided 
to resist, " rogavit ea quae pads erant," 1 and did it in 
such manner as that " omnes qui viderunt, inceperunt 
illudere ei." 2 For, thinking to o-ive double satisfaction if 
he could bring his wife to church with him, he laboured 
to overthrow her constancy in that kind, and when he 
found she would not yield unto his desires therein, the 
poor gentleman, out of his too much desire to seem con- 
formable, went unto the Commissioners and complains of 
his wife's obstinacy in that point, desiring them to help 
him to reform his wife, or rather, indeed, to deform her 
according to his ill example. But she remained constant, 
and he, poor knight, was laughed at for his labour, even 
by his very enemies, with whom he sought to gain much 
credit with that double diligence. 

A third example I heard, of a gentleman of good 
estate, who, preferring darkness before light, and seeking 
to make a convention or union between God and Belial 
in his soul, offered himself to go to their heretical con- 
venticles for the saving of his worldly substance ; and so 
he did, and escaped the punishment of the law : " sed 

1 He desired "conditions of peace" (St. Luke xiv. 32). 

2 "All that" saw it began "to mock him" (St. Luke xiv. 29). 



310 A Narrative of 

nunquid Deum fallere aut fugere potuit?" 1 No. "Qui 
voluit animam suam salvam facere, perdidit earn." 2 He 
went to church : he thought to preserve his goods for 
the provision of many years, "et stultus non praevidit 
quod ilia nocte repeterent animam suam ;" 3 he was 
stricken with sudden death, leaving his goods to the 
fruition 4 of others, and this dreadful example to the 
admonition of all. 

So merciful hath God been unto us in these times of 
our greatest needs and trial, as to encourage us by the 
worthy example of many that stand, and to terrify by the 
example of these few that have fallen ; for I have not 
heard of any other examples of any men 5 of note ; which, 
if we compare with that which St. Cyprian recordeth of 
his times, when great numbers did run to offer themselves 
before they felt the force of persecution, upon the only 
fame and fear that an edict was to be published against 
the Christians, this may give us great hope that God 
neither is nor will be wanting with His graces, if we be 
not wanting to ourselves, but will give us abundance of 
spiritual forces answerable to the measure of that trial He 
will put us unto, " nee patietur nos tentari ultra 6 id quod 
possumus, sed faciet cum tentatione proventum ut possimus 
sustinere." 7 

The Parliament presently ensued, against which time 
the Puritans had provided two pestilent books, as hath 
been touched before : the one to prove all recusants to 
be traitors, the other that the rules and precepts of the 
Catholic doctrine, yea, the very fruit of the whole tree 

1 But could he deceive or escape God ? 

2 He who would save his life, lost it (Cf. St. Luke ix. 24). 

3 And in his folly did not foresee that that night they would require his 
soul of him (Cf. St. Luke xii. 20). 

4 Enjoying. Erased in Orig. 

5 Worthy. Erased in Orig. 

6 Supra. Erased in Orig. 

7 He "will not suffer" us "to be tempted above that which" we "are 
able; but will make also with temptation issue, that" we " may be able to 
bear it" (1 Cor. x. 13). 



the Guupozuder Plot. 3 1 1 

of the Catholic Roman faith, was to teach men dis- 
obedience to Princes, yea, to deprive Kings of their 
temporal estates, and, finally, to kill, murder, and destroy 
their persons. And all this to the end that both the 
King himself and all the Peers of the realm might be 
so incensed against Catholics and their religion, as to 
proceed by laws against the one, as against traitors proved 
and convinced so to be, and to seek by all means possible, 
not only to cut down the other as a tree bearing in their 
opinion such poisoned fruit, but rather wholly to root it 
out of their earth of England, that there might be no 
memory left of the name of a Catholic in the land. And 
they prevailed so far with the false reasons set down in 
these malicious books, and with their most 1 subtle and 
manifold subornations exhibited unto His Majesty and 
the Peers in the Parliament House, taking occasion 
to blow the coals that already were kindled in dislike 
taken against Catholics for the late attempt, that they 
easily prevailed to get those laws passed which before 
they were resolved of, and which in particular were known 
to be a breeding when those gentlemen ran so heady a 
course to prevent so great a deluge of persecution, which 
they feared, and we have felt to light upon us. 

For although they now intitle this new increase of per- 
secution to be occasioned by that temerarious conspiracy, 
which is disliked by us as much as by themselves, yet 
certain it is (as I have showed before) that these laws 
were intended and prepared before either they or we knew 
anything of this intention of conspiracy. And many of 
the Puritans themselves, " ex abundantia cordis," 2 could 
not choose but utter how fully they were resolved in 
that Parliament to seek the utter extirpation of the 
Catholics, and what things in particular they would 
procure and were prepared to be enacted against them. 

1 Secret and. Erased in Orig. 

2 "Out of the abundance of the heart" (St. Matt, xii, 34). 



312 A Narrative of 

And truly the laws which they then intended, and which 
they afterwards in the Parliament procured to pass against 
us, were very sufficient in the likelihood of human reason 
to work the effect which they most wished, and to root 
out Catholic religion and all that professed the same 
out of the land, if God did not stand in defence of His 
servants, 1 against Whom neither wit nor force of man, 
"imo nee portae inferi prsevalebunt." 2 How cruel and 
afflictive the laws are in themselves, and how grievous 
and intolerable it is for Catholics to live where they are 
put in execution, I will leave to the judgment of the 
prudent reader, meaning in the next chapter to set down 
a catalogue of them, that he may see in one place collected 
together a sum of those afflictions unto which we are 
continually subject, that he may not hereafter permit 
himself to be deceived with such false reports, as are 
of purpose given out by the politics of England, that 
forsooth the persecution is not great and that none are 
there punished, especially not with death, but for matter 
of State and treason against the Prince ; which to be most 
untrue his own eyes shall be judge, when he reads the 
very words of the statutes enacted, which I will truly but 
briefly set down as they lie in the statute-book, which 
is printed and in every man's hands through England, so 
well known that it cannot be contradicted. 

And now, after the Parliament in which all these 
laws were passed against us, to add unto the weight of 
our heavy burthen, two other new afflictions were devised, 
not specified in the laws : the one to punish the bodies 
of Priests, the other to afflict and wound the minds of 
all sorts of Catholics. 

The first was a proclamation of banishment to all 
Priests, that by such a day, which was there limited 
within a short compass in the edict, all should depart 

1 Beholding St. Stephen's conflict. — Erased in Orig. 

2 Nor even the gates of hell shall prevail (Cf. St. Matt. xvi. 18). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 313 

the realm ; if not, to expect no mercy but present death 
upon their taking. By which banishment, as they pre- 
tended, on the one side, to do it in show of favour (as 
though they sought not their deaths, but rather wished 
they would draw themselves out of danger by their 
voluntary departure). And, indeed, it is true they do 
not so much seek their deaths as their departure, knowing 
on the one side, by experience, what force the blood 
of martyrs is of, both for the confirmation of Catholics 
and conversion of heretics ; and withal that there is 
no means so effectual to scatter St. Peter's sheep, and 
to make them a prey unto the wolf, as to take their 
Pastors from them : for, as St. Bernard wisely saith, 
" Vas illis qui assumuntur ad opera fortium, et non aluntur 
cibo fortium." 1 So that with this counsel, this seeming 
favour, but indeed a slow consuming fire of persecution 
was put in practice, and many Priests that were in prison 
in several places of England were, according to the same 
edict, put into ships and banished the realm by the day 
prefixed. Knowing withal what misery and want they 
were like to suffer in foreign countries, where they were 
not capable of benefices or cure of souls for want of 
language, and where their wants must needs be exceeding 
great, having no friends nor acquaintance nor means to 
furnish themselves even with necessaries, unless it please 
Almighty God to move the hearts of Princes to impart 
some temporal relief unto them, that they may be 
partakers of their spiritual riches and the merits of their 
sufferings. And this was hoped by the heretics would 
not be very plentiful, in respect of the seminaries and 
the wants of other afflicted Catholics in those parts, who 
have also continual need of their charitable helps. And 
hitherto, as I understand, their wants are very great and 
the provision very small which is made for them, and the 

1 Woe unto those who are chosen for the works of the strong, and are not 
fed with the food of the strong. 



314 A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot 

hopes and desires of the heretics too much followed. But 
God will raise them friends, I trust, and send them 
provision in due season, "qui recordatus est Danielis in 
lacu leonum et pascit etiam pullos corvorum invocantes 
eum;" 1 and though sometimes He will try His servants 
far, yet doth never forget the least of them, "quorum etiam 
capilli numerati sunt." 2 

The other more universal affliction, and the same so 
much more grievous as it was more internal and piercing 
even to the very souls of those that did accept it, was 
a new oath devised for the distinction, as was pretended, 
between faithful and faithless subjects to their Prince, 
but indeed to distinguish the true subjects of the See 
Apostolic from those that would renounce the power 
thereof for the pleasing of their Prince. 3 

1 Who remembered Daniel in the lions' den, and feeds even "the young 
ravens that call upon Him" (Ps. cxlvi. 9). 

2 Whose very hairs are numbered (Cf. St. Matt. x. 30). 

3 Here must be added the oath, and some few words after, to bring in the 
other chapter. In marg. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A CATALOGUE OF THE LAWS AGAINST CATHOLICS MADE 
BY QUEEN ELIZABETH AND CONFIRMED BY THIS 
KING, AND OF OTHERS ADDED BY HIMSELF. 

It hath ever been one point of policy in the Government 
of England, since the- beginning of persecution there, to 
hide the same from the knowledge of the world, and from 
being judged to be such by other kingdoms round about 
them, as much as could be possible. To this end they 
have ever sent and maintained their instruments in other 
countries to 1 maintain that opinion in men's minds. To 
this effect often advices have been 2 sent into all Princes' 
Courts by letters, which their friends and favourers there 
should publish and procure to be believed. For this cause, 
when any Catholic Princes' Ambassadors have come into 
England, there hath been cunning wits ever employed to 
resort unto them and possess them with a different 
conceit from that which is and hath been the true state 
of Catholics in England. And if they were such as come 
with intention to labour for the help or ease of Catholics 
in any sort, then, perhaps, for a time there should be some 
cessation, or else some hope or half promises given, of 
toleration, or mitigation at least, in that matter. And 
that which they could not hide from being seen, they 
would at least cover, and keep from being known to be 
persecution for cause of religion. And, therefore, both in 
their laws at home, and letters of information sent abroad, 
would invest the same with other names, as of treason, and 

1 Establish and. Erased in Orig. 

2 Usually. Erased in Orig. 



316 A Narrative of 

offences against the State ; when nothing less than dis- 
obedience to the civil government was found in Catholics, 
nor any subjects in the realm more faithful, or loving, or 
obedient to their Prince in all things which were not 
against their faith or religion. Yet did the politics ever 
with printed books endeavour to prove that all was but 
the execution of justice against traitors and persons 
disobedient to the State. But herein they follow the 
platform of the first enemies and persecutors of Christ 
and His Church ; and we the example of our Master, 
suffering as He did, for that which we neither preach nor 
practise, nor can be proved against us. Although they cry 
out never so loud, " Invenimus hos subvertentes gentem 
nostram," 1 because we desire to draw them to their ancient 
faith and profession of the same : " et prohibentes tri- 
butum dari Caesari," 2 because we will not grant the 
supremacy in ecclesiastical matters which he affecteth, 
(for as for other corporal tributes, none are so ready as 
Catholics to pay all duties) : " et dicentes se Christum 
et regem habere 3 alium," 4 because we say and profess that 
the Pope is Christ His Vicegerent on earth and governeth 
His spiritual Kingdom, and we His children and subjects 
in this spiritual government. 5 

Therefore, although they cry out never so much that 
this is " contradicere Caesari," 6 and that whosoever doth 
favour this cause is not "amicus Caesaris;" 7 yea, though 
they cry, "Crucifige, crucifige," 8 against us, and lay the 
heavy cross of persecution upon our shoulders for this 
cause, we must and will have patience, because it is 

1 "We have found" these men "perverting our nation" (St. Luke xxiii. 2). 

2 "And forbidding to give tribute to Caesar" {Ibid). 

3 In Roma. Erased in Orig. 

4 And saying that they have another Christ and King. 

5 Which Himself denied not to Pilate to be in the world, though it were 
not a kingdom of the world. Erased in Orig. 

6 To speak "against Caesar" (St. John xix. 12). 

7 "Caesar's friend" (Bid). 

8 "Crucify, crucify" (St. Luke xxiii. 21). 



the Gunpowder Plot. 317 

Christ His cause and quarrel, and not as they affirm, 
and would have the world believe, that we suffer for 
matter of State, or for stubbornness and disobedience 
to 1 the King or civil government 

And that the truth may herein the better appear, I 
will now, according to my former promise, set down a 
Catalogue of the laws that are made and stand in force 
against Catholics in England, which being carefully con- 
sidered by the discreet and pious reader, I will ask no 
other judge than himself, either touching the greatness or 
the cause of persecution in England, for I know he will 
both see and say much contrary to that which the politic 
heretics in our country and their favourers in other places 
have given out, and would gladly have to be believed. 

And albeit there be many severe and rigorous 
laws and statutes in force against Catholics at this day 
in England, that were made by King Henry the Eighth 
after his revolt from the Church of Rome, as also in 2 the 
Governors of King Edward the Sixth, under whom 
religion was first altered and the sects of Zuinglius and 
Calvin were brought into our country : which laws and 
statutes, being repealed by the Princes of pious memory, 
King Philip and Queen Mary, were revived again and 
established by the authority of other Parliaments under 
Queen Elizabeth and the same confirmed, as hath been 
said, by His Majesty that now is : yet do I not think it 
necessary to set down 3 in this place any other statutes 
than such as were made and allowed by these two latter 
Princes, which comprehend all the other, with many 
additions and aggravations besides. And in citing them, 
I will use as near as I can the very words themselves of 
the statutes, as they are in print. 

First, then, Queen Elizabeth, coming to the crown in 



1 Our Prince. Erased in Orig. 

2 By. Erased in Orig. 

3 Cite. Erased in Orig. 



J 



18 A Narrative of 



the year of Christ 1558, she called a Parliament soon after, 
in the said first year of her reign, wherein she repealed all 
the good statutes and laws which her sister, Queen Mary, 
had made in favour of Catholic religion, conform to the 
laws of all her ancestors, Kings of England, from the 
first Christian King until that time, except the latter end 
of her father's reign, King Henry the Eighth, and the 
minority of her brother, King Edward the Sixth, whose 
laws in favour of schism and sectaries 1 Queen Elizabeth 
revived, adding many of her own, which after do ensue. 

And first of all, she meaning to break principally with 
the See of Rome, as well in regard of her nativity, which 
the said See held not for legitimate, as of the favour borne 
by the said See to Queen Mary of France and Scotland, 
mother to our King that now is, then living and reigning 
in prosperity, and much envied and suspected by the other ; 
it was enacted that every Englishman, of what state, 
degree, or condition soever, whensoever he taketh any 
office, dignity, ecclesiastical benefice, or holy orders, any 
degree of school, university, profession, or other promotion 
temporal or spiritual, shall take a corporal oath upon the 
Evangelist protesting and swearing that he doth utterly 
testify and declare in his conscience that the Queen is 
Supreme Head of the Church of England and not the 
Pope ; and that neither he nor the See of Rome had any 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre- 
eminence over that Church, nor ought to have. So help 
him God. 2 Stat, an i° Elizab. cap. i°. 

And moreover, that whosoever shall refuse to take and 
make this oath, being required thereunto, shall for the 
first time of denial, not only be disabled of the foresaid 
preferments, offices, degrees, and dignities whatsoever, but 
also lose and forfeit all his goods and lands to the said 
Queen, and suffer perpetual imprisonment as in case of 

1 Heresy. Erased in Orig. 

2 As by the contents of that book, &c. Erased in Orig. Elizab. cap. 1°. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 319 

prczmunirc. And for the second time, if he persist three 
months in the same after the first tender, and will not take 
and pronounce the same oath in form aforesaid, then he 
shall forfeit, lose, and suffer death, and other like pains, 
forfeitures, judgments, and executions as is used in cases 
of high treason. Ibid, et an° 5 cap. i°. This treason 
you may see was only against the state of heresy and 
schism, not against the State of Queen or Commonwealth. 

And then yet further. Whosoever shall by writing, 
printing, preaching, or teaching, by express words, deed, 
or act (for so are the words of the statute), advisedly and 
directly affirm, hold, set forth, maintain or defend the 
authority, power, or jurisdiction spiritual or ecclesiastical 
of the Bishop of Rome, or his See, heretofore claimed 
or used within the realm of England, or of any other 
dominion or country thereunto belonging ; for his first 
offence he shall forfeit and lose all his goods and chattels, 
as well real as personal : and for the second offence, 
besides the loss of goods and lands, he shall be cast into 
perpetual prison : and for the third time (if again he offend 
in defending the said Pope's authority), he shall suffer the 
pains of death, and other penalties, forfeitures, and losses 
appointed in the cases of high treason. An i° Eliz. cap. 
3 et an° 5 cit°. 

And then for conclusion. Whosoever shall be aiders 
or abettors to any such offenders, assisting or comforting 
them to set forth and extol the said power and eccle- 
siastical authority of the Bishop of Rome, or to refuse 
the foresaid oath in form before set down, and shall be 
lawfully convicted thereof; they shall for the first time 
lose all their goods and lands, and for the second be 
condemned to perpetual prison as in the statute of pro- 
vision or prceiminire. An 5 Eliz. cap. i°. 

And these punishments were afterwards more increased 
by another Act of the same Queen, in the fifth year of her 
reign, where it was ordained that all aiders, counsellers, 



320 A Narrative of 

and comforters 1 in this case should for the second time 
suffer the pains of death, and other forfeitures and losses 
of their goods, lands, honours, and nobility, as in cases 
of high treason. An° 5 cap. i°. 

It was ordained in like manner, for preventing of 
the Catholic education of all English youths, that no 
person shall take upon him to be a schoolmaster or 
teacher of children, either in public schools or private 
houses, except he first take the said oath against the 
Pope's spiritual authority, and that he believe the supreme 
authority of the Queen in all causes ecclesiastical. Ibid. 

Moreover, it is enacted by authority of the said Par- 
liament that all clergymen shall leave and abandon from 
this time forward the old Roman use of Latin service, 
Mass, and administration of other Sacraments, and shall 
betake themselves to say or sing the same in English in 
all churches and chapels, and to administer the Sacraments 
after the manner, rites, and fashion which is set down and 
prescribed in a new book of Common Prayer set forth for 
the purpose, and he that shall refuse to do so, or shall use 
any other rite or form of service or Sacraments than is 
therein appointed, shall for his first default be committed 
to prison for six months and lose the fruits of all his 
ecclesiastical living for a whole year, and for the second 
offence shall lose all his living for ever and lie in prison a 
year, and for the third time shall be condemned to 
perpetual prison all the time of his life. An° i° Eliz. 
cap. 2°. Here you may see what it is they intend when 
they urge Catholics to come to their churches and service, 
and that it is no act of temporal duty or obedience in 
civil matters which they require (as they will sometimes 
pretend, to make us thought disobedient and stubborn), but 
a renunciation of our old and the only true religion and a 
conformity to their new doctrine. This is the thing which 
we refuse, and for which they call us recusants, and for 

1 And abettors. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 321 

which they punish us by many and severe penalties, as 
shall appear by those that follow. 

And conform to this it was also decreed that if any 
layman that hath no ecclesiastical livings shall be present 
at any other sort of service than the aforesaid appointed in 
the common book of prayer, as, for example, at Mass or 
Roman service, or shall receive any other sacraments, or 
after other manner, form, or ceremony than is there pre- 
scribed, he shall, for the first time of his so offending, 
forfeit an hundred marks of lawful English money unto 
the Queen, for the second four hundred marks, and for the 
third shall lie in prison all days of his life. And if he 
refuse to come to the church he shall pay xiid. for every 
Sunday and holiday wherein he faileth. Anno i° et 5 
Eliz. cap. 2°. 

These laws made Queen Elizabeth in the first five years 
of her reign. But afterwards, growing more angry with 
Catholics and Catholic religion, but especially with the 
See of Rome for the sentence of Pius V tus against her, she 
added many bloody laws more, in the thirteenth year of 
her reign. As, for example, that if any man shall bring 
into England or into any of the dominions thereunto 
belonging, from the Pope of Rome or from any man that 
hath authority from him, any Bull, writing, instrument, or 
authority to absolve or reconcile any person, or to promise 
any such absolution or reconciliation by speech, preaching, 
teaching, writing, or any other open deed, that then all and 
every such act or acts, offence or offences, shall be deemed 
and adjudged by the authority of this Act to be high 
treason. And as well the offenders as the procurers, 
abettors, and counsellors, shall suffer death and other 
losses as traitors. Anno 13 Eliz. cap. 1°. 

Moreover, that if any person within the realm of 

England or dominions thereof, after the first day of 

July, Anno Domini 1571, shall willingly receive or take 

any such absolution or reconciliation from the said Bishop 

V 



322 A Narrative of 

of Rome or any of his successors, or by any that have 
authority from him ; yea, if he shall receive or admit any 
manner of Bull, writing, or instrument from the said See 
of Rome, written or printed, containing any such thing, 
matter, or cause whatsoever, or if any offer thereof, motion, 
or persuasion being made unto him, shall not disclose or 
reveal the same to some of the Privy Council, all shall be 
high treason in him, and he shall suffer death and other 
losses for the same, as in cases of that crime is accustomed. 
Ibidem. 

And yet further, that whosoever shall bring into any 
dominions of England after the time before named any 
token or tokens, thing or things, called by the name of 
Agnus Dei, or any crosses, pictures, beads, or any such 
like, from the Bishop or See of Rome, or from any person 
or persons authorized from the said Bishop or See to 
consecrate or hallow the same ; or shall deliver or offer, 
or cause to be delivered, any part thereof to any subject of 
this realm, or of any the dominions thereof, to be worn 
or used in any wise, that then, as well the same person or 
persons that shall receive the same to the intent to use and 
wear, being thereof lawfully convicted by the order of the 
common laws of this realm, shall incur the penalties, 
pains, and forfeitures provided by the statute of praemu- 
nire, which are the loss of all his lands and goods and 
perpetual imprisonment. Anno 13 Eliz. cap. 2°. 

Now when, by the acerbity and peril of so many cruel 
laws and statutes, divers Catholics, being terrified, desired 
and sought means to go into voluntary banishment beyond 
the seas, and to leave the realm either with or without 
licence, the Queen, understanding thereof, prevented them 
with another new law the very next year after, enacting 
that all and every person and persons, of what state, 
degree, or condition soever they be, under the obeisance 
of the said Queen, who sithence the first day of her reign 
have passed or hereafter shall pass into any dominions 



the Gunpowder Plot. 323 

of foreign Princes without her special licence by writing, 
under the great seal of England, privy seal, or privy signet, 
and shall not return within the space of six months next 
after proclamation made for them to return and yield 
their bodies to the custody and ward of the sheriff of the 
county, &c. ; all such persons shall forfeit and lose to the 
said Queen the whole profits of their manors, lands, tene- 
ments, and hereditaments during their lives, and all their 
goods and chattels for ever. Anno 14 cap. 6°. 

Moreover, that if any person, born under the obedience 
of Her Majesty, have or shall pass into foreign countries 
with leave and licence, as before is prescribed, and shall 
not presently, within six months after the expiring of the 
said licence, return home and yield their bodies in custody, 
as is before prescribed, shall suffer the same loss of goods 
and chattels and the rents of their lands as the other that 
went forth without licence. 

And whatsoever conveyances, estates, grants, leases, 
gifts, or devises, they or any of them shall be found to 
have made of their lands and goods for their own relief to 
defraud the Queen, shall be utterly void, and of no 
validity at all in law. Anno 14 Eliz. cap. 6°. 

These laws passed in the first fourteen years of the 
Queen's government. But afterwards, as she grew older, 
she did in most Parliaments aggravate the same. As, 
namely, in the twenty-third year of her reign, taking upon 
her to expound and explicate the former statute of 
bringing in Bulls, &c, from Rome, she determineth that 
by what means soever any man did pretend faculty or 
power to absolve any person or persons from their sins, or 
shall reconcile them to the Roman Church, or persuade to 
the acknowledgment of the Pope's ecclesiastical authority 
over England, it shall be high treason both to the 
absolver and the absolved, to the reconciler and to the 
reconciled, that shall willingly yield thereunto, yea, and to 
all the procurers, aiders, and counsellors. All which, being 



324 A Narrative of 

lawfully convicted thereof, shall suffer death, as in case of 
high treason. Anno 23 Eliz. cap. 2°. 

And if any person or persons shall come to know of 
any man so absolved and reconciled, or of any such that 
doth absolve or reconcile, and shall not, within twenty 
days at the furthest, disclose the same to some justice of 
peace, or to some higher officer of the Prince, he shall be 
taken, tried, and judged, suffer and forfeit as offenders in 
misprision of treason, vdlt., he shall forfeit his lands and 
livings, but not suffer death for the same. Ibidem. 

In this Parliament also it was decreed, that for so much 
as many Catholics did upon conscience retire themselves 
from going to the Protestants' church and service more 
Month's Recusance, than before, that every such recusant, 
being above the age of sixteen years, instead of paying 
x.iid. for every Sunday, which was by former statute 
appointed, should now forfeit and pay to the Queen 20/. 
of lawful English money for every month, and, besides 
this, should be bound to put in sufficient sureties in the 
[sum] of 200/. at the least for their good behaviour, and so 
to continue bound until such time as the person so bound 
do conform himself to come to church. Anno 29 Eliz. 
cap. 2°. 

And, moreover, because it was presumed that every 
recusant would not be able to pay this 20/. a month for 
his recusancy, it was enacted that such as were not able to 
pay the said statute should pay two parts of three of all 
their lands and goods, so as he that should (for example) 
have three hundred should pay two hundred yearly to 
the Queen for his recusancy, and retain one hundred for 
maintenance of himself, his wife, children, and family. 

In the same Parliament it was also enacted that if any 
person or persons, body politic or corporal, after the Feast 
of Pentecost then next ensuing, should keep any school- 
master for their children which should not repair to the 
church, or not be allowed by the Bishop or Ordinary of the 



the Gunpowder Plot. 325 

diocese (which allowance could not be had without abjuring 
the Pope's authority and the Catholic religion, as before 
hath been showed), then shall he or they forfeit and lose 
for every month 1 10/., and the schoolmaster or teacher 
himself, besides his lying in prison for one whole year, 
shall be disabled for ever to be a teacher of youth or to 
exercise that office in any place afterwards. 

And to the end that Catholic recusants might be able 
to pay these payments and pecuniary forfeitures to the 
Queen, and not be able to make away any part of their 
livings for their better relief, it was also enacted and 
declared in this Parliament that every grant or con- 
veyance of goods or lands, every bond, judgment, or 
execution had or made from that time forward which 
should be judged to be done of purpose to defraud the 
Queen, or to save their lands or goods from being forfeited 
by virtue of 2 this statute, that all such conveyance made 
by any Catholic recusant since the beginning of the said 
Queen's reign, or after to be made for the use and relief 
of the said recusant, or any of his, should not be available 
in law, but all void, as if they had not been made. Anno 
2 8° Eliz. cap. 6°. 

But a little before this, to wit, in the precedent year, 
the said Queen, understanding that Priests and eccle- 
siastical men were multiplied in England by reason of 
the English Seminaries in Catholic Princes' dominions, 3 
caused terrible thundering statutes to be made against 
them. And first, that all and every Jesuit, Seminary 
Priests, and other Priests whatsoever, made and ordained 
out of the realm of England by any authority, power, or 
jurisdiction derived, challenged, or pretended, from the 
See of Rome, since the Feast of the Nativity of St. John 
Baptist in the first year of the said Queen's reign, 1559, 

1 So keeping. Erased in Orig. 

2 According to. Erased in Orig. 

3 Foreign countries. Erased in Orig. 



^326 A Narrative of 

shall within forty days depart out of the realm, and shall 
not return again without peculiar licence of Her Majesty, 
under pain of death and other losses and forfeitures 
accustomed in cases of high treason. Anno 27 Eliz. 
cap. 2°. 

And then, secondly, if any subject of the realm 
whatsoever, after the said time of forty days expired, 
shall wittingly and willingly receive, relieve, comfort, or 
maintain any such Jesuit, Seminary Priest, or other Priest, 
Deacon, Religious, or ecclesiastical person as is aforesaid, 
knowing him to be such an one, such suffer the pain of 
death, and other losses, as in case of felony. Ibidem. 

Moreover, it was enacted by authority aforesaid, that if 
any of Her Majesty's subjects or their children, now being 
or hereafter shall be brought up in any College of Jesuits 
or Seminary already erected or hereafter to be erected in 
the parts beyond the seas, shall not within six months 
next after proclamation in that behalf, to be made in the 
City of London under the great seal of England, return 
into this realm, and thereupon, within two days next after 
his return, before the Bishop of the diocese, or two justices 
of peace of the county where he shall arrive, submit 
himself to Her Majesty and the laws, and take the oath 
of supremacy against the Bishop of Rome his ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction, set forth in the first year of the Queen's reign ; 
that then every such person otherwise returning or abiding 
without such submission and forswearing his religion, as is 
aforesaid, shall be adjudged a traitor, and suffer, lose, and 
forfeit, as in cases of high treason. Anno 21 Eliz. cap. 6°. 

And it was further enacted in the same Parliament 
that, if any subject of the Queen's, after the foresaid forty 
days expired, shall either by way of exchange, bank, 
merchandize, or any shift or means whatsoever, wittingly 
and willingly, directly or indirectly, convey or send over 
the seas or out of the Queen's dominions any money or 
other relief to or for any Jesuit, Seminary Priest, Deacon, 



the Gunpowder Plot. 327 

Religious, or ecclesiastical person, scholar, student, or the 
like, or for the maintenance or relief of any College or 
Seminary already erected or to be erected, that every such 
person so offending shall lose all his goods and lands and 
suffer perpetual imprisonment, as in case of prczmunire. 
Also it was enacted that whosoever should send over any 
such students as aforesaid to the Seminaries shall for every 
time forfeit 100/. 

The statute of confinement. And yet further, in the year 35 
of the Queen's reign it was enacted that every 
recusant persevering in denial to go to the Protestants' 
churches should be bound to go to their ordinary places of 
dwelling, and not to depart from thence above five miles, 
under pain of losing all their goods and chattels. And 
they which should have no certain dwelling-place should 
repair to the place where their father and mother dwelt, 
under the same pains and forfeiture. And he that should 
fail in this either is condemned to live in perpetual prison 
or to abjure the land. Anno 35 Eliz. cap. 2° 

And yet this being not thought sufficient severity in this 
kind, another statute was made, ordaining that whosoever, 
by printing, writing, or express words, deeds, or speeches, 
should practise or go about to move or persuade any of the 
Queen's subjects to deny her power in ecclesiastical causes, 
or to abstain from going to the Protestants' church, or to 
be present at any unlawful assemblies under colour or 
pretence of any exercise of religion contrary to Her 
Majesty's laws, or shall themselves refuse for three 
months' space to go to the said churches and hear divine 
service, that then they shall be forced to abjure the realm 
and go into perpetual banishment, or if they refuse the 
same, they shall suffer death and other losses for it, as in 
cases of felony. Anno 35 Eliz. cap. i°. 

These are the chief statutes made against Catholic 
religion in general by the late Queen Elizabeth. For we 
do pretermit divers others more particular, and concerning 



328 A Narrative of 

particular persons. As, for example, that of the 28th of 
her reign {cap. i°), wherein the Lord Thomas Paget, Baron, 
Sir Francis Inglefield, Knight (one of the Privy Council 
to Queen Mary, of worthy memory), and other Catholic 
gentlemen, were attainted of treason, their goods and lands 
confiscate, upon the former statute of fugitives, for that 
they either went forth of England without licence, for 
preservation of their consciences, or returned not when 
their licence was ended. 

Another statute was also made in the 39th year of 
Queen Elizabeth's reign {cap. 8°), wherein it was decreed 
that all such Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, and other 
spiritual Prelates of Queen Mary's time, as were deprived 
by this Queen's ecclesiastical authority, for that they 
would not accommodate themselves unto the form of 
religion by her set forth, were well and lawfully deprived, 
and by their deprivation the said bishoprics were made 
merely void, and the others invested in their places by the 
Queen's authority were only the true Bishops and had 
lawful episcopal jurisdiction. 1 And divers other such 
particular things, which in this place we think good to 
pass over. 

All these statutes, then, of Queen Elizabeth against 
Catholic people and their religion, being so grievous and 
rigorous, as you see, were confirmed by His Majesty that 
now is, without any restraint or mitigation, in the first 
Parliament, as before hath been said, with divers other 
aggrievances thereunto added of new ; as that Catholic 
recusants should not only pay the 20/. a month ordained 
by the former statute for such as refused to go to the 
Protestants' church and service for conscience sake, but, 
besides this 20/. a month to be paid for himself, he should 
also pay 10/. a month for his wife or children that shall 
refuse to go to the said churches, yea, and another also for 
his servants. 

1 Authority. Erased in Orig. 



the Gunpowder Plot. 329 

Moreover, that all such young men or children that 
shall study on that 1 side the seas (being Catholics) or 
frequent the schools or Colleges of any of the Jesuits, or 
shall not return home within a certain time limited to 
give account of themselves and their religion, shall forfeit 
their inheritances in England and other dominions of His 
Majesty, and the next of his kindred shall enjoy the 
forfeiture that will conform himself, &c. 

And furthermore, whereas, in the beginning of his said 
reign, certain new canons, constitutions, and ordinances 
were agreed upon by those of the Protestant clergy to 
molest and afflict Catholics withal, by pretended censures 
of excommunications, as, namely, that four times at least 
every year all preachers, readers of divinity, and all other 
ecclesiastical persons, in sermons, collations, and lectures, 
shall teach open and declare to the people that all autho- 
rity and jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome (as a thing not 
having any ground by the law of God) is, for most just 
causes, taken away and abolished, and that therefore no 
manner of obedience or subjection is due thereunto, but 
only that the King's power, which in his dominions and 
countries is the highest power under God, above all other 
powers and potentates upon earth ; and that whosoever 
denieth this, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and 
not restored but only by the Archbishop after his 
repentance and public revocation of those his wicked 
errors. These are the words of his first two canons. 

And the same punishment is laid upon whomsoever 
shall hold or affirm that the Church of England now 
established by law under His Majesty, is not a true and 
Apostolical Church, teaching and maintaining the doctrine 
of the Apostles. 

And many other things like unto this, passing from one 
article to another of their sect, and binding Catholics, 
under pain of excommunication, to believe and hold 

1 This. Erased in Orig. 



33° A Narrative of 

all that they hold, or else to be vexed with citations, 
condemnations, excommunications, and other vexations, 
together with the writs and processes de excommunicato 
capiendo, as before you have heard suggested by the 
Chancellor. Unto all which His Majesty gave consent 
and authority by his letters patent, under the great seal 
of England, upon the year 1603, and first of his reign, in 
these words : — 

"We have, for us and our heirs and lawful successors, 
of our especial grace, certain knowledge and mere motion 
given, and by these presents do give our royal assent to 
all and every of the said canons, orders and ordinances 
and constitutions, and to all and everything in them 
contained. And we do, by our said prerogative royal 
and supreme authority in causes ecclesiastical, notify, 
confirm, and establish, by these our letters patent, the 
said canons, orders, &c, and all and everything in them 
contained. And, moreover, do straitly enjoin and 
command by our said authority, and by these our letters 
patent, that the same be diligently observed and exe- 
cuted," &c 

So His Majesty, in the first year of his reign, after he 
had confirmed and revived all the laws of Queen Elizabeth 
made and executed against Catholics ; by all which he 
made it evident unto his Catholic subjects that he would 
not only continue and go forward in the steps of Queen 
Elizabeth touching the persecution of Catholics, but 
increase and add unto the same. For this increase of 
afflictions, which was laid upon Catholics the first year of 
his reign, was little in respect of that which was intended 
against them. Which divers of the forward Puritans did 
3 Reg. 12. not stick to affirm and to threaten in the King's 
name, as Roboam did in the beginning of his reign, saying, 
" Minimus digitus meus grossior est dorso patris mei. Et 
nunc pater meus posuit super vos jugum grave, ego autem 
addam super jugum vestrum ; pater meus cecidit vos 



the Gunpowder Plot. 331 

flagellis, ego autem csedam vos scorpionibus." 1 To the 
like effect did many of his officers give out His Majesty's 
intentions to be ; which, though we may presume to have 
been contrary to his royal disposition, yet they did so far 
prevail with him, that he afterwards verified what they had 
foretold, by confirming the former laws of Queen Elizabeth 
and adding unto them as you have heard. But especially 
when he called the second Parliament, and in that suffered 
to be packed together all the principal Puritans of the 
realm, whose insatiable hatred against Catholics we knew 
very well would never take up until they had made laws 
answerable to their rriind and malice against us. Then 
they all before the Parliament consulted, and concluded 
of the bills and laws they would urge to be passed against 
Catholics, as afterwards, indeed, it was performed. And 
many of those intended laws were known to divers 
Catholics long before the Parliament time, which, as it 
is thought, was a great motive unto the gentlemen to 
undertake their rash and dangerous conspiracy, as deeming 
so desperate a course to be a needful remedy in so 
desperate a case. 2 

1 " My little finger is thicker than the back of my father. And now my 
father put a heavy yoke upon you, but I will add to your yoke : my father beat 
you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions" (3 Kings xii. 10, 11). 

2 Here must be added the chief laws made in the third year of the King's 
reign. And after that some few lines to show how much Catholics must 
needs suffer under so heavy a yoke, more than they do under the Turk or any 
other Government, and how hard it is for Catholics to live in such trials, being 
so barred the Sacraments and helps, according to that of St. Bernard, "Vae 
illis qui assumuntur in fortium et non aluntur fortium." In marg. 



END OF THE NARRATIVE. 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



Abbot, George, Archbishop ; a 
visit from clvi, present at Fr. 
Garnett's death 290, persecutes 
Fr. Cornforth and the Vauxes 
clxxxvi, receives Sir George 
Talbot cc. 

Abergavenny, Katherine 'Lady ; 
Lord Vaux's sister clxxxvi. 

Abington, Dorothy ; her conver- 
sion by Fr. Ouldcorne 283. 

Abington, Thomas ; in the Tower 
27, condemned to death for har- 
bouring Priests 28, life spared 
at Lord Mounteagle's interces- 
sion 28, absent when Henlip is 
searched 152, apprehended 157, 
sent to Worcester 266, meets 
his wife 266, tried 267, reprieved 
268, foils various Bishops of 
Worcester 269. 

Adams, John ; martyr, in the 
Marshalsea xiv. 

Albert, Archduke, Governor of 
Flanders ; cxcvii, delays foun- 
dation of Watten cc. 

Aldobrandini, Hippolitus Car- 
dinal ; Viceprotector of the 
English College, Rome ccliv. 

Aldridge ; a merchant, reaches 
Douay ccliv. 

Alfani, sends a MS. to England 
from Rome ccl. 

Alford, Michael, S.J.; author of 
Ajinals ccxlix. 

Allen, Wm., Cardinal ; wishes Fr. 
Gerard to return to England 
xvi, desired harmony between 
seculars and Society cciv, 
obtains an indulgence for a 
prayer for the conversion of 
England cclxii. 

Aquaviva, Claude, General S.J. ; 
ccxxviii, admits Fr. Gerard and 
Fr. Ouldcorne into the Society 
xvi, 279. 



Arden, Edward ; executed cxv. 

Arden, Francis ; escapes from the 
Tower with Fr. Gerard cxv. 

Arragon, D. Blasco de, cclviii. 

Arundel, Anne Countess of; 
receives Fr. Southwell and Fr. 
Gerard lvii, at Acton cclv. 

Arundel, Philip Earl of; in the 
Tower x, lvii. 

Arundell, Henry Lord ; letter 
from Fr. Thorpe ccxlix. 

Ashby Church ; story of " good 
Sir Wm. Catesby" painted in 55. 

Ashley, Ralph, S.J. ; tortured 181, 
taken to Worcester 266, tried 
271, martyred 275. 

Atkinson, William ; a Priest spy, 
informs of Fr. Gerard's letters 
lxxxviii, tries to have him re- 
arrested cxxix, betrays Thomas 
Tichburn, the martyr cxxx. 

BABINGTON'S plot ; xv, xvii, 26. 

Babthorpe, Sir Ralph; at Louvain 
cxcvii. 

Babthorpe, Thomas, S.J.; ccxlii. 

Bacon, Sir Francis ; examines Fr. 
Gerard xciii, and two servants 
of Mrs. Vaux cclvi. 

Baldwin, William, S.J.; his letter 
to Fr. Persons cclviii, proposed 
for attainder 165. 

Bales, Christopher ; martyr xviii. 

Bancroft, Richard, Bishop of 
London ; sermon at Paul's Cross 
43, enquires respecting Father 
Garnett's straw 303. 

Banks, Richard, S.J.; succeeds 
Fr. Gerard at Braddocks cxxxi. 

Barker, Thomas ; William Wise- 
man's servant xliv, xlix. 

Barkley, Sir Richard, Governor 
of the Tower ; examines Fr. 
Gerard xciii, resigns his gover- 
norship ciii. 



334 



Alphabetical Index. 



Bates,Thomas; servant of Catesby, 
enters conspiracy 84, suspected 
135, tried in Westminster Hall 
192, his letter of regrets 210, 
his death 219. 

Baynham, Sir Edmund ; 77, 82, 
236, 251. 

Beaumont, see Tesimond. 

Beesley, George ; martyr xviii. 

Bellamy, Anne ; betrays Father 
Southwell ccxiv, ccxviii. 

Bellarmine, Robert Cardinal ; his 
letter to Fr. Gerard cciii. 

Bergholt, East, St. Mary's Abbey; 
xxxvii. 

Bishop, William ; in the Mar- 
shalsea xiv. 

Blackburn, see Thomson. 

Blackfan, John, S.J. ; proposed 
as nominal Rector of Louvain 
cxcvii. 

Blackwell, George, the Arch- 
priest ; his house near the Inns 
of Court cxxx, informed of 
Watson's plot by Fr. Gerard, 

74. 

Blase, James, O.S.F., Bishop of 
St. Omers ; transfers Watten to 
Society cc. 

Blount, Richard, S.J.; intending 
to leave England clxxxvii, letter 
to Fr. Aquaviva ccxlvii. 

Blunt, Sir Christopher; in Earl 
of Essex's rising 56. 

Booth, Charles, S.J.; ccxlix. 

Brabant, florin of ; xiv. 

Braddocks ; William Wiseman's 
house xxx, Fr. Gerard's resi- 
dence xxxii, searched Hi, Mass 
at ccliv. 

Brewster, a Priest at Northend xli. 

Briant or Brian, Alexander, S.J.; 
martyr 17. 

Bridewell ; Richard Fulwood in 
xliii, li. 

Bromley, Sir Henry ; searches 
Henlip 151, takes Fr. Garnett 
and Fr. Ouldcorne to London 

157. 

Brooke, see Gerard. / 

Brooke, Sir Basil ; cc. 

Brooksby, Eleanor ; cxxxv, at Lord 
Vaux's 137. 

Browne, Robert ; a Priest cxxxiv. 

Browne, William, S.J.; a Lay- 
brother cxcix. 



Brussels, Benedictine Convent 

xxxvii. 
Bryn ; seat of the Gerards ix. 
Brynhill, Sir Peter de ; ix. 
Buckley, see Jones. 
Buckland, Ralph ; Fr. Gerard's 

fellow-traveller xvi, ccliv. 
Buchanan ; teaches regicide 122. 

Campion, Edmund, S.J.; martyr 
17, his praises by Fr. Henry 
Walpole xci, effects of his 
coming to England 131. 

Caracena, Conde de ; cxciv. 

Carvajal, Donna Luisa de ; her 
will cxciii, founds English Novi- 
tiate cxciv. 

Catesby, Robert ; entered the Plot 
in good faith 11, proposes it 52, 
descended from "good Sir 
William" 54, his early life 55, 
wounded in and fined for the 
Earl of Essex's rising 56, 
consults Fr. Garnett in general 
terms 65, conduct on discovery 
of the Plot 106, scorched with 
powder 108, shot 109, manner 
of his death no, at Lord Vaux's 
137, cclvi. 

Charles, Duke of York ; 85, 91. 

Clarke ; his treason 250. 

Clarke, William ; committed as a 
recusant xlii. 

Clermont College, Paris ; Fr. 
Gerard at xii. 

Clink, prison ; spiritual exercises 
in lxxii, Good Friday in lxxxvi, 
Fr. Gerard in lxix, Fr. Percy in 
cxxxiii, Brother Emerson in xiv, 
lxx, lxxviii, lxxxix, ccliv, Brother 
Lilly in lxxi, John Rigby, the 
martyr, converted by Fr. Gerard 
in lxxii. 

Cokayne, Edward ; reports a 
search in Mrs. Jenison's house 
ccliii. 

Coke, Sir Edward ; examines 
William Wiseman 1, examines 
Fr. Gerard xciii, his book 46, 
examines Fr. Garnett 164, pro- 
poses 8 Jesuits for attainder by 
Parliament 164, his speech at 
Fr. Garnett's trial 228. 

Colendin, see Gifford. 

Collyn, Patrick ; his treason 234, 
249, xcv. 



Alphabetical Index. 



335 



Conference of Protestant Bishops 
and Puritans in 1605 ; 40. 

Contreras, Don Frances de; cxciv. 

Cornelius John, S.J.; martyr 17, 
manner of arrest 38. 

Cornforth, Thomas, S.J. ; caught 
at Mass clxxxvi. 

Coughton ; Bates saw Father 
Garnett and Father Tesimond 
at 211. 

Counter, the prisons so called ; 
x, lxi, lxix. 

Cranedge, Henry and FJizabeth ; 
recusants xlii. 

Cranishe, Richard ; son of Robert, 
crosses to Middleborough xliv. 

Cresswell, Joseph, S.J.; Father 
Persons' Philopater attributed 
to him 234, proposed for 
attainder 164, superior in Spain 
ccxxviii. 

Crooke, Sir John ; opens prose- 
cution of Fr. Garnett 227. 

Dale, Mr. ; examines Brother 
Emerson ccliv. 

Daniel! ; Mrs. Wiseman's servant 
xlii. 

Darbyshire, Thomas, S.J. ; goes 
with Fr. Gerard to Rouen xii. 

Darcy, see Garnett. 

Digby, Sir Everard ; his and his 
wife's conversion cl, his illness 
cliii, his affection for Fr. Gerard 
cliv, helps to convert a friend 
clxvi, entered into the Plot 
87, in good faith 11, his family 
87, his manliness 88, his Catho- 
lic life 89, his office in the Plot 
91, at Dunchurch 106, his page 
William Ellis no, ccii, taken 
in, proposes match between 
Lord Vaux and Earl of Suffolk's 
daughter 137, at Lord Vaux's 
cclvi, his house in Rutlandshire 
138, tried in Westminster Flail 
191, exculpates Fr. Gerard 209, 
clxxix, clears the Society 8, 
allied to Earl of Salisbury 216, 
asks to be beheaded 216, his 
death 216, Fr. Gerard's letter 
to ccxxxiv. 

Dolman, the priest ; lettter to 
Mrs. Wiseman xliv. 

Dormer, Dorothy ; marries Sir 
Henry Huddleston xxxiii. 



Dormer, Jane ; marries Duke of 
Feria xxxiii. 

Drury, Robert ; martyr lxxvi, 
living in Fr. Gerard's house 
cxxvii. 

Dunkellin, Richard Lord; wishes 
to go to confession clix, fights 
a duel clxi, marries and con- 
verts Walsyngham's daughter 
clix, clxi. 

Dunsmore Heath ; 92. 

Egerton, Sir Thomas, Lord 
Chancellor ; once a Catholic lix^ 

Elizabeth, Princess ; 85. 

Ellis, William alias John Williams ; 
page to Sir Everard Digby no,, 
novice S.J. ccii. 

Elmer, John, Bishop of London ; 
Fr. Gerard in his custody, xiii. 

Emerson ; of Felsted xliv. 

Emerson, Ralph, S.J. ; alias Ho- 
mulus xlv, lxx, in Clink xlv, lxx, 
lxxviii, Jxxxix, his examination 
ccliv, moved to Newgate xlv, 
sent to Wisbech, into banish- 
ment, dies at St. Omers lxxi. 

Essex, Earl of; his rising 55. 

Eu, College at; xvii, 280. 

Everett, Thomas, S.J. ; in hiding 
clxxx, surprised at Mass clxxxi. 

Excommunications ; 42. 

Farmer, see Garnett. 

Fawcet ; a witness against Fr* 
Garnett 255. 

Fawkes or Faulks, Guido or Guy ; 
one of the first conspirators 53, 
a good soldier in Flanders 59, 
passes as Percy's man 63, 105, 
his office in the Plot 91, found 
in the vault 99, apprehended 
103, alias John Johnson 105, 
196, in the Tower 112, his con- 
fession ccxxiv, 112, tortured 
ccxxv, 221, tried in Westminster 
Hall 191, reason for pleading 
"Not guilty" 195, his death 221. 

Feller; his mention of Fr. Garnett's 
straw 305. 

Ferdinand, Prince Bishop of Liege ; 
cc, cciv. 

Feria, Duke of; hk wife Jane 
Dormer xxxiii. 

Filcock, Roger, S.J. ; martyr lxxvi. 

Fisher, see Percy. 



■36 



Alphabetical Index. 



Fitzherbert, Thomas, SJ. ; letter 
to Bishop of Chalcedon ccxlii. 

Fleming, Thomas ; examines Fr. 
Gerard xciii. 

Floyd, Henry, SJ.; ccxlii, cclx. 

Foxe, Robert ; committed as a 
recusant xlii. 

Frank, John ; betrays his master 
and Fr. Gerard xl, his depo- 
sition xli. 

Froude ; quotation from, on equi- 
vocation ccxi. 

Fuller, Mr. ; examines Brother 
Emerson ccliv. 

Fulwood, John ; found in Mr. 
Wiseman's house xliv, xlix. 

Fulwood, Richard, SJ. ; Father 
Gerard's man xlii, xliv, visits 
Lady Gerard xxxv, taken xlvi, 
imprisoned in Bridewell xliii, li, 
tortured li, lxiv, escapes lxvi, 
helps Fr. Gerard to escape 
from the Tower cxviii, in 
Belgium cclviii. 

Garnett alias Gilford ; Novice 
SJ. cci. 

Garnett, Henry, S J. ; alias Darcy 
cclxii, alias Walley 211, clxxxix, 
alias Farmer 226, his parent- 
age 297, Father Gerard finds 
him in London, 282, xxiv, lives 
in Warwickshire 282, his in- 
structions xxv, renewal of vows 
xxxviii, his foresight xxxviii, xlv, 
xlvi, Fr. Gerard tortured to say 
where he is xcvi, c, receives 
Fr. Gerard on his escape from 
Tower cxxiv, his house called 
Morecroftes at Uxbridge, cclv, 
his house in Spital cxliii, in- 
formed of Watson's plot by 
Fr. Gerard 74, consulted by 
Catesby on death of innocents 
65, 120, 253, wrote to Rome 
his fears 71, 75, 121, goes to 
St. Winifred's Well 78, 240, 258, 
cclxii, persuades discontented 
Catholics to send Sir Edmund 
Baynham to the Pope 77, 82, 
236,251, his wise direction 132, 
Bates' evidence against him 136, 
211, accused in Proclamation 
144, his attainder proposed 165, 
hides at Henlip 150, betrayed by 
Humphrey Littleton 150, taken 
154, identified by a Priest 156, 



silences Sir Henry Bromley's 
chaplain 157, committed to Gate- 
house 159, clxxxii, examined by 
Privy Council 159, transferred 
to Tower 160, cozened by his 
keeper 166, overheard in con- 
ference with Fr. Ouldcorne 169, 
24 1, kept from sleep and drugged 
173, tortured 174, may now tell 
what he heard in confession 
175, tried at Guildhall 225, his 
indictment 226, his speech 243, 
his martyrdom 288, cclviii, the 
miraculous straw 297, 301, other 
signs 305, on equivocation 244, 
ccxx, his letters xlv, ccxxviii, 
72 et sea. 

Garnett, Thomas ; in Gatehouse 
166, sent to Tower 173, martyred 
cxcv, Novice at St. John's, Lou- 
vain cxcv. 

Garney, James ; Sir Everard 
Digby's servant, cclxii. 

Garswood ; seat of the Gerards ix. 

Gasca, Donna Maria ; cxciv. 

Gatehouse ; Fr. Garnett and Fr. 
Ouldcorne committed to 159, 
Thomas Garnett there 166, 
John Grissold there 181, Jane 
Wiseman there lxxxii, Richard 
Richardson there cxc, cclvi. 

Gerard, Dame Elizabeth; daughter 
of Sir John Port ix, ccliii, a recu- 
sant xi, receives her son xxxv. 

Gerard John, SJ. ; alias Starkie, 
alias Standish xxx, xciii, alias 
Tanfield, alias Staunton, xlii, 
alias Brooke clxxxvii, alias 
Nelson, alias Tomson cxcvi, 
alias Harrison cclix, parent- 
age ix, childhood x, is sent to 
Derbyshire x, has property at 
Ashton xi, sent to Exeter 
College, Oxford xi, goes to 
Rhemes xii, ccliii, to Paris and 
Rouen xii, his vocation xii, falls 
ill and returns to England xiii, 
in custody of Elmer, Bishop of 
London xiii, committed to Mar- 
shalsea xiv, fined for recusancy 
xiv, goes to Paris and Rome xv, 
enters English College xv, ccliv, 
ordained Priest xvi, ccliv, ad- 
mitted into Society xvi, 279, 
starts for England xvi, 280, lands 
xviii, arrested xxi, 281, reaches 



Alphabetical Index. 



337 



Norwich xxii, arrives in London 
xxiv, returns to Norfolk xxv, 
282, changes his residence xxix, 
goes to live at Braddocks xxxii, 
hires a house in Golding-lane 
xlvi, in hiding-places xxxix, lii, 
cxxxix, received by Countess of 
Arundel lvii, taken at Middle- 
ton's lviii, examined lix, lxi, lxxx, 
lxxxii, xciii, lxxxiv, ex, cxiii, ccxiv, 
sent to the Counter lxi, put in 
irons lix, lxiv, lxix, his servants 
Ixv, removed to the Clink lxix, 
his house in charge of Ann Line 
lxxii, wears Jesuit's dress in 
prison lxxxi, cell in Clink 
searched lxxxix, removed to 
Tower xc, tortured the first 
time xcvii, the second time ci, 
the third time ciii, says Mass 
cxv, escapes from Tower cxvii, 
leaves the Wisemans exxxi, fears 
to have to leave England exxxi, 
removes to Harrowden exxxiii, 
takes half of a house in London 
exxix, which is searched exxxvi, 
moves to a house near the 
Strand clxii, where without his 
knowledge the conspirators 
receive Communion, I97,ccxxiii, 
his innocence of Powder Plot 
clxxiii, clxxviii, in hiding clxxxii, 
leaves England clxxxiv, at St. 
Omers and Brussels eclviii, goes 
to Rome eclxi, and Louvain 
clxxxiii, exciii, his character eeli, 
his Profession clxxxiv, Bates' 
evidence against him 136, his 
letters to the Council 136, 142, 
207, 212, accused in Proclama- 
tion 143, proposed for attainder 
165, cleared by Sir Everard 
Digby 209, his letters clxxxv, 
exev, ccxxxi, ccxlvi, cclix, his 
description clxxxvii, disturbed 
in Belgium by English Govern- 
ment exevi, returns through 
Spain to Rome ccviii, dies there 
ccix, on equivocation ccix, his 
MS. on Powder Plot ccxlviii, 
his autobiography eclii. 

Gerard Sir Gilbert ; Master of 
the Rolls x. 

Gerard, Sir Thomas ; first Baronet 
x, knighted at James I.'s acces- 
sion with fair words 27. 

W 



Gerard, Sir Thomas ; first Lord 
Gerard x, Knight Marshal exxx. 

Gerard, Sir Thomas ; Knight, of 
Bryn ix, imprisoned twice in 
the Tower x, 27, released at 
great cost 27, compounds for 
his recusancy x, dwelt at 
Etwall, within two miles of 
Tutbury Castle, x, ecliii, 26. 

Ghent ; Tertianship founded by 
Anne Countess of Arundel 
eclxii. 

Gifford, Gilbert, alias Jacques 
Colendin ; a Priest and spy 
xvi. 

Gilford, see Garnett. 

Golding-lane ; Fr. Gerard's house 
there searched xlv. 

Golthwaite ; Sir John Yorke's 
house eclvii. 

Goodman, Gabriel, Dean of West- 
minster ; examines Fr. Gerard 
lxxxii, examines Br. Emerson 
ecliv. 

Grafton, Novice, S.J.; cci. 

Grant, John ; beats pursuivants 
86, joins the conspiracy 87, 
much scorched with powder 
108, taken 109, tried in West- 
minster Hall 191, his death 218, 
not at Lord Vaux's eclvi. 

Green, Richard ; candidate for 
Society exciii. 

Greenway, see Tesimond. 

Grene, Christopher, S.J.; Collec- 
tanea ccxlvii, ccxlix. 

Grene, Martin, S.J.; letter about 
Powder Plot ccxlvii. 

Griffin, Mrs.; receives Fr. Gar- 
nett's straw 302, cured by it 304. 

Grissold, John ; tortured 181. 

Guildhall ; Fr. Gerard examined at 
lxxxiv, Fr. Garnett tried in 226. 

Hall, see Ouldcorne. 

Harrington, Lord ; in charge of 
the Lady Elizabeth 85, 92. 

Harrison, see Gerard. 

Harrowden, Great ; exxxv, cxlvii, 
altar furniture at clxxv, searched 
for nine days clxxv, exc, 141, 
Bates saw the Fathers at 136, 
211, restored to Lord Vaux 
clxxxvii. 

Hartley, William ; martyr, in the 
Marshalsea xiv. 



33% 



Alphabetical Index. 



Hatton, Sir Christopher ; his 
house cxxxv. 

Heigham, William, SJ. ; main- 
tains William Thomson the 
martyr lxxiii. 

Henlip; Thomas Abington's house, 

149, Fr. Garnett hides there 150, 
Fr. Ouldcorne lives there xl, 

150, searched 151. 
Heywood, Mrs.; her presence of 

mind when her house is searched 
cxxxviii. 

Hobadge House ; Stephen Little- 
ton's 108, 210. 

Hobocque, Baron de ; Flemish 
ambassador, testifies to Father 
Garnett's straw 303. 

Holt, William, SJ.; Rector of 
English College at Rome xv, 
ccliv, in Belgium cxxviii, un- 
justly accused 249. 

Homulus, see Emerson. 

Hopton, Sir Owen ; examines 
Brother Emerson ccliv. 

Hoskins, Anthony, SJ. ; cxlix, 
with Fr. Gerard clxxx, with Fr. 
Gerard's friends cclx. 

Huddington ; Winters of 58. 

Huddleston, Sir Henry; converted 
xxxiii. 

Hunston, Brian ; in Fr. Gerard's 
service clxxxix. 

Huntingdon, Earl of: his wife 
Fr. Gerard's aunt ccliii. 

Hurlston, Ha. ; in prison clxxxix. 

Hymn of All Saints; 240, 254,cclxii. 

Inglefield, Sir Francis ; at- 
tainted 328. 

Jackson, Richard • indicted for 
saying Mass at Braddocks ccliv. 

James I. ; his book for his son 
23, compares Papists and 
Puritans to two asses 123, ex- 
pectations on his accession 20, 
disappointment 25, deciphers 
the letter 98, proclamation of 
Nov. 7, 114, his speech 116, his 
book on the Powder Plot 199. 

Jenings, Alice, wife of Richard ; 
a recusant xlii. 

Jenison, John and Michael ; Fr. 
Gerard's brothers-in-law ccliii. 

Jeppes, John ; stayed at Frank's 
with the Wisemans xliv. 



Jesuits; accused 148, 193, cleared 
179, Coke proposes eight for 
attainder by Parliament 164. 

Johnson ; quotation from, on equi- 
vocation ccxi. 

Jones, alias Buckley, John, O.S.F.; 
martyr xxxii, lxxvi. 

Kensington, see Laithwaite. 

Keyes, Robert ; his virtue and 
valour 87, joins the conspiracy 
87, taken 112, tried in West- 
minster Hall 192, his death 221. 

Keynes, George, SJ. ; cclviii. 

Knevet, Sir Thomas ; searches 
the vault 103. 

Knox, John ; teaches regicide 122. 

Laithwaite, Thos., S.J.; taken, 
escapes, is retaken clxxvi, alias 
Scott alias Kensington cxcvi, 
frequents Fr. Gerard's house 
clxxvi, ccxxiv. 

Lasnet, John, SJ. ; serves Fr. 
Gerard lxv. 

Laud, William Archbishop ; mar- 
ries Lord Mountjoy and Lady 
Rich xxxiv. 

Lee Priory ; Lord Rich's house, xli. 

Lee, Roger, SJ. ; in retreat cxxxvi, 
cxlvi, helps to convert his friends 
cxlviii, cl, Fr. Baldwin would 
send him to England cclviii, 
Fr. Gerard opposed to this as 
premature cclx. 

Leeds, Sir Thomas ; at Louvain 
cxcvii. 

Leicester, Earl of; lxii, threats 
against Catholics xvii, 279, "my 
Lord of Leicester's books" ccliv. 

Lenox, Duke of; Fr. Gerard's 
letter to ccxxxi. 

Lerma, Duke of; 235. 

Leutner, or Lewckener, Edmund ; 
of Exeter College, Oxford xi. 

Lewkner, Thomas, Novice SJ. 
cci. 

Liege, florin of xiv. 

Liege, foundation at cxcvi, cxcix. 

Lilly, John S J. ; in the Clink lxxi, 
liberty purchased cix, visits Fr. 
Gerard in the Tower cxi, helps 
him to escape from the Tower 
cxviii, is taken in his stead 
cxxxix, outwits Wade cxliii, 
death lxvi, cxliv. 



Alphabetical Index. 



1 1 c\ 



Line, Anne ; martyr, has charge 
of Father Gerard's house lxxiii, 
changes house cxxviii, her hus- 
band lxxiv, visits Mrs. Hey wood 
cxxxviii, her arrest at Mass lxxv, 
her conduct in Court lxxv, her 
death lxxvi. 

Lingard, John, D.D. ; on the 
Communion of the conspirators 
ccxxiii, on the date of a letter 
quoted ccxxvii, quotes affidavit 
of Anthony Smith ccxlvii. 

Little John and Little Michael, 
see Owen. 

Littleton, Humphrey ; shelters 
Robert Winter and Stephen 
Littleton 112, betrays Father 
Garnett and Fr. Ouldcorne 150, 
tried at Worcester 267, repents 
of his treachery 268, 269, 270. 

Littleton, Stephen ; receives the 
conspirators 108, escapes for a 
time no, Hobadge House 108, 
210, taken 112, tried and exe- 
cuted at Stafford 277. 

Lopez ; his treason 234. 

Louvain, St. John's ; the first 
English Novitiate S.J. cxcv. 

Louvain, St. Monica's ; xxxi, cxcvi. 

Maltravers, James Lord ; 
erroneously said to have been 
converted by Fr. Gerard cclxii. 

Manners, Sir Oliver ; his conver- 
sion clxvi, his letter to Fr. Aqua- 
viva cclv, his return to England 
cciii, his death cciii, praise 
perhaps of him as intending 
to be a Priest cclxi. 

Mansel alias Griffin, Richard ; 
Novice S.J. cci. 

Markham, Anne Lady ; corres- 
pondence with Earl of Salis- 
bury about betraying Father 
Gerard clxxxviii. 

Marshalsea Prison ; cxxx, Fr. 
Gerard in xiv, Br. Nicholas 
Owen in 186. 

Mary, Queen of Scots ; 21, died 
because she was a Catholic 16, a 
martyr 22, confined at Tutbury 
Castle x, ccliii, 26, Babington's 
plot for xv, xvii, 26, Sir Thomas 
Stanley, Sir Thomas Gerard, 
and Mr. Roulston take her 
part 26. 



Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria ; 
sends gifts to new House at 
Liege cc, endows the College 
there cc, his children cc. 

Mayer, Father, S.J. ; cc. 

Mayor of London, the Lord ; 
searches Fr. Gerard's house 
clxxxi, one of Fr. Garnett's 
judges 226. 

Middleton's ; Fr. Gerard and 
Nicholas Owen taken there 
xliii, xliv, lviii. 

Milton ; quotation from, on equi- 
vocation ccxi. 

Miranda, Conde de ; 235, Con- 
dessa de cxciv. 

Molina, Melchior de ; cxciv. 

Montacute Papers ; cclvi. 

Montague, Anthony Viscount ; 
xxxiii, cxcix. 

More, Thomas, S.J. ; last English 
Provincial before the suppres- 
sion ccli. 

More, Henry, S.J. ; lived at St. 
John's, Louvain cxcv, Socius to 
Fr. Gerard at Louvain cc, his 
scholarship cci. 

Morecroftes at Uxbridge ; Fr. 
Garnett's house cclv, perhaps 
xlvi, cxxiv, 181. 

Morton, see Talbot. 

Motte ; his bark xliv. 

Mountague, Dean of Chapel 
Royal ; 45. 

Mounteagle, the Lord ; the letter 
to 96, his supper 101. 

Mountjoy, Lord ; seduces Lady 
Rich xxxiv. 

Myller, Ralph ; a tailor of Rhemes, 
his confession cxxxiv. 

Nelson, see Gerard. 

Nevill, the Lady; died of ill- 
treatment in a search 39. 

Newall, William; a pursuivant 
xli, ccliii. 

Newman, John Henry, D.D. ; 
quotation from ccxi. 

Norffooke, Nicholas ; Mr. Wise- 
man's servant xlii. 

Northampton, Earl of ; reads the 
letter 97, examines Fr. Garnett 
173, speech at conspirators' trial 
213, one of Fr. Garnett's judges 
226, intercedes for the Vauxes 
clxxxvi. 



340 



Alphabetical Index, 



Northend, Great Waltham ; Mrs. 

Wiseman's house xxxi. 
Northumberland, Earl of; his 

four daughters xxxvi. 
Nottingham, Earl of; one of Fr. 

Garnett's judges 226. 

Ormes ; a tailor xlii. 

Ostend ; boys taken going to St. 
Omers by lxxix. 

Ouldcorne, Edward, S.J. ; alias 
Hall 165, sent to Naples to beg 
for the English College, Rome, 
278, admitted into the Society 
xvi, 279, goes to England xvi, 
ccliv, 280, converts Dorothy 
Abington 283, cured of cancer in 
the mouth by St. Winifred 284, 
danger on occasion of renewal 
of vows xl, betrayed by Hum- 
phrey Littleton 150, an escape 
by ready wit 1 54, committed to 
Gatehouse 159, overheard in 
conference with Fr. Garnett in 
the Tower 169, 241, tortured 181, 
285, taken to Worcester 265, 
tried 267, his indictment 269, 
converts a felon in prison 271, 
martyrdom 274, cclviii, two 
notable signs after his death 
285, his dream 306, cclxii. 

Overal, John, Dean of St. Paul's ; 
present at Fr. Garnett's death 
290. 

Owen, Nicholas, S.J., alias Little 
John and Little Michael; taken 
, with Fr. Gerard xliv, lviii, makes 
hiding-places lvii, cxlv, tortured 
Ixiv, receives Father Garnett's 
letters lxxxix, taken at Henlip 
153, committed to the Marshal- 
sea 186, tortured to death in 
Tower 182, his patience when 
his leg was broken 185. 

Owen, Thomas, S.J. ; Prefect of 
the English Mission cxcv. 

Page, Francis, S.J. ; martyr cxi, 
surprised at Mass lxxv, is taken 
when visiting Fr. Gerard in the 
Tower ex, released for money, 
becomes a Priest, a Jesuit, and 
a martyr cxi. 

Paget, Lord ; attainted 328. 

Paley ; quotation from, on equivo- 
cation ccxi. 



Parker, Christopher; in Father 
Gerard's service clxxxix. 

Paschal, Mr. ; reaches Douay ccliv. 

Peckham, Edmund ; Fr. Gerard's 
brother-in-law ecliii. 

Penal laws ; 15, 33, 315, et seq., 
James' statutes 29, 328. 

Percy, John, S.J., alias Fisher ; 
cclxii, his sufferings at Flushing 
exxxii, imprisoned in and escape 
from Bridewell exxxiii, in York- 
shire exxxiii, with Fr. Gerard at 
Stoke Pogis cxlvi, at Harrowden 
cxlvii, goes to Sir Everard 
Digby clxxiv, returns to Mrs. 
Vaux clxxxiii, eclx, in Belgium 
exevii. 

Percy, Lady Mary; her life in 
England xxxvi, her vocation 
xxxvii, her sisters xxxvi, xliii, 
lxviii. 

Percy, Thomas ; one of the first 
conspirators 53, connection of 
Earl of Northumberland 57, 100, 
married John Wright's sister 57, 
his early life 57, converted 58, 
a Gentleman Pensioner 58, hires 
house by the river 63, and cellar 
for fuel 71, his office in the 
Plot 63, 91, shot no. 

Perkises and his man executed at 
Worcester 277. 

Perne, Andrew ; his religion xxvi. 

Persons, Robert, S.J. ; his Christian 
Z?irectoryxu,forbids state affairs 
76, 81, effects of his coming to 
England 131, Prefect of the 
English Mission xv, exciii, 
cclix, 280, admits Fr. Gerard 
into the Novitiate xvi, praises 
Father Gerard's behaviour after 
the Powder Plot eclxi. 

Phelips, Sir Edward ; opens 
Powder Plot indictment 196, 
his papers eclvi. 

Philips the decipherer ; com- 
mitted to Tower for corres- 
pondence with Mr. Owen cclviii. 

Pilgrims' Register at Rome ; entry 
of Fr. Gerard's name ccliv. 

Polewhele ; his treason xcv. 

Pollen, Joseph, S.J. ; in hiding 
cxi, eclv. 

Popham, Sir John, Chief Justice ; 
execution of penal laws intrusted 
to 33, examines Fr. Garnett 164, 



Alphabetical Index. 



34i 



one of his judges 226, pro- 
nounces sentence 263. 

Port, Sir John ; his three daughters 
ccliii. 

Priests ; cleared by the Con- 
spirators 128, Queen Mary's 
xxvii, xxx, 133, 231. 

Puckering, Lord Keeper; report 
made to xxxi, xli, xliv. 

Puente, Luis de la, S.J. ; his two 
letters to Fr. Gerard ccv. 

Puritans in Parliament 29, and 
in authority 31. 

Oueenhithe, Conspiracy laid 
in, in Fr. Garnett's indictment 
226, 238. 

Recusants given over to enrich 
courtiers 34, three degrees of, 
according to King James, 41. 

Richard, see Mansel. 

Richardson, Richard ; in Gate- 
house cxc, his examination cclvi. 

Rich, Lord ; his house xli. 

Rich, Penelope Lady; her story 
xxxiii. 

Rigby, John ; martyr, converted 
in the Clink by Fr. Gerard lxxii. 

Rookwood, Ambrose ; his family 
85, joins the conspiracy 86, 
scorched with powder 108, 
wounded and taken 109, tried 
in Westminster Hall 191, fare- 
well to his wife 219, his death 
221, when at Lord Vaux's cclvi. 

Roulston ; took part with Mary 
Queen of Scots, betrayed by 
his son 26. 

Rouse; at Mechlin cxcvi. 

Rydgeley, Mary ; marries John 
Wiseman cclv. 

Sacchini, Francis, S.J.; had 
the original of Fr. Gerard's 
Autobiography cclii. 

Salesberie, Mr. ; in Babington's 
plot, 26. 

Salisbury, Earl of; discloses the 
Plot 97, examines Fr. Gerard 
173, his book An Answer to 
certain Scandalous Pafters 199, 
212, speech in answer to Sir 
Everard Digby 215, one of 
Fr. Garnett's judges 226, Fr. 
Gerard's letter to ccxxxiii, cor- 



respondence with Lady Mark- 
ham clxxxix. 

Savage, Samuel ; Mrs. Wiseman's 
servant xlii. 

Savage, William ; tailor, crosses 
to Middleborough xliv. 

Schondonch, Giles, S.J. ; Rector 
of St. Omers cclviii, extract of 
letter ccxlv. 

Scott, see Laithwaite. 

Scott, Sir Walter; equivocation 
ccxvii. 

Scudamore alias John Wiseman ; 
at Northend xliii, crosses to 
Middleborough xliv. 

Searches ; at Fr. Garnett's xxxix, 
at Golding-lane xlv, at North- 
end xli, at Braddocks lii, house 
in London cxxxvi, at Harrow- 
den for nine days clxxv, 138, 
at Henlip 151, at Mrs. Jenison's 
ccliii, manner of in general 35, 
Lady Nevill's death caused by 

39- 

Seymour, Lady Jane ; daughter of 
Thomas, Earl of Northumber- 
land xxxvi, a Protestant xliii, 
lxviii. 

Shefford, see Stratford. 

Sheldon, Hugh, S.J. ; makes 
hiding-places cxlv, caught, sent 
to Wisbech and banished cxlvi. 

Shelley, Owen alias Titchborn ; 
Novice S.J. cci, Rector of 
Liege cci. 

Sherwin, Ralph; martyr 17. 

Sherwood, Father; 234, none such 
in the Society 249. 

Sherwood, John, S.J. ; died before 
he came to be a Priest 249. 

Shrewsbury, the Lady ; her zeal 
praised cclviii. 

Shurley ; Mistress of Novices at 
St. Monica's, Louvain cxcvi. 

Silisdon, Henry, S.J. ; Rector at 
Louvain cxcv, Master of Novices 
at Liege cc, ccv, his opinion of 
Fr. Gerard's talent for govern- 
ment ccii. 

Silvester, Novice S.J.; cci. 

Singleton, Dr.; cciv. 

Sion House ; Nuns of xxx. 

Smith, Anthony ; affidavit respect- 
ing Fr. Gerard ccxlvii. 

Smith, William, Bishop of Chalce- 
don ; Fr. Fitzherbert's letter to 



342 



Alphabetical Index. 



cclxii, Fr. Gerard's letter to 
ccxxxviii, ccxlvi. 

Southwell, Robert, SJ. ; xxiv, his 
journeys with Fr. Gerard xxiii, 
his instructions xxv, surprised at 
Mass xxxix, lived with Countess 
of Arundel lvii, maligned by 
Young lxvii, tortured by Top- 
cliffe 1 8, invoked by Fr. Gerard 
cxxiii, his spiritual books 132, 
date of his martyrdom 282, ccli, 
betrayed by Anne Bellamy 
•ccxiv, ccxvii, on equivocation 
ccxiv, ccxviii. 

.'Southworth, John ; Fr. Gerard's 
bailiff, xi. 

Squire ; his treason 234, 249, xcv. 

Standish ; Fr. Gerard's pseudo- 
nym taken by John Wiseman, 
S.J. xxx. 

Stanhope, Sir Thomas ; his wife 
Father Gerard's aunt ccliii. 

Stanley, Sir William ; lxii, his 
wife's death cxcviii, calls Fr. 
Gerard cousin cxcix, buys the 
Liege property cxcix, his forces 
236. 

Stanley, Sir Thomas ; took part 
with Mary Queen of Scots 26. 

Stanny, Thomas, S.J.; xl. 

Starkie ; Fr. Gerard's pseudonym 
taken by Thomas Wiseman, 
S.J., xxx. 

Staunton, see Gerard. 

St. Germain, Marquis of; cclviii. 

Stoke Pogis ; house at cxxxv, 
searched cxlvi. 

Stone, Marmaduke, S.J. ; Father 
Gerard's MS. received by ccxlix. 

Strand ; Fr. Gerard's house near 
clxii, ccxxiii. 

Strange, Thomas, S.J. ; tortured 
in the Tower clxxiv, with Fr. 
Gerard clxxiv, ccxxix, taken in 
Warwickshire clxxvii, Mrs. 
Vaux asks his release clxxxii, 
140. 

.Stratford, Arthur alias Shefford; 
xvii, ccliv. 

Stratforde, John; found in Mr. 
Wiseman's house xliv. 

.Stuart Papers at Rome ccxlix. 

Suffield, William ; William Wise- 
man's man, xli, xliv. 

Suffolk, Earl of, Lord Chamber- 
lain ; marriage proposed be- 



tween his daughter and Lord 
Vaux 137, reads the letter 97, 
searches the vaults 99, examines 
Fr. Garnett, 173, one of Father 
Garnett's judges 226. 

Sutton, John ; Ixvi. 

Sutton, William, S.J. ; Fr. Gerard's 
tutor xii. 

Swetnam, Francis ; servant to 
Mrs. Vaux, examined cclvi. 

Talbot, Sir George, of Grafton, 
alias Morton ; Fr. Gerard calls 
him cousin cxcix, friend of 
Maximilian Duke of Bavaria cc, 
well received by King James 
and Archbishop Abbot cc, after- 
wards ninth Earl of Shrews- 
bury cc. 

Talbot, Thomas, S.J. ; Novice 
Master at Lou vain cxcv, cclix. 

Tanfield, see Gerard. 

Taylor, Jeremy; quotation from, 
on equivocation ccxi. 

Tesimond, Oswald alias Green- 
way alias Philip Beaumont, S.J.; 
ccxlviii, Bates' evidence against 
136, 211, accused in Proclama- 
tion 143, proposed for attainder 
165, named by Fr. Garnett 175, 
cleared by Thomas Winter 220, 
crossed the sea clxxxii, his 
narrative ccxxvi, ccxlviii, cclv. 

Thomson alias Blackburn, Wm. ; 
martyr xv, lxxiii. 

Thorpe, John, S.J. ; letter to Lord 
Arundell ccxlix, letter to Father 
Stone ccli. 

Tichburn, Thomas ; martyr, be- 
trayed by Atkinson cxxx. 

Tierney, Mark Anthony, Canon ; 
on the Communion of the con- 
spirators ccxxiii, on the date of 
a quoted letter ccxxv. 

Titchborn, see Shelley. 

Tomson, see Gerard. 

Topcliffe, Richard ; examinations 
by lxi, lxxxii, lxxxiv, imprisoned 
lxxxvi, a prophet lxxxvi, tortures 
Fr. Southwell 18, describes Fr. 
Gerard clxxxvii. 

Torture in the Tower ; manner 
of xcvii, effects of cv, 189. 

Tower ; Sir Thomas Stanley, Sir 
Thomas Gerard and Mr. Roul- 
ston in 26, Sir Thomas Gerard 



Alphabetical Index. 



343 



in the second time x, 27, 
Father Gerard removed to xc, 
Fr. Henry Walpole's cell in xc, 
torture in xcvii, beasts in cxii, 
Mass in cxv, Fr. Gerard escapes 
from cxvii, Fr. Garnett and Fr. 
Ouldcorne sent to 160, Anne 
Vaux taken to 172, Ralph 
Ashley and John Grissold tor- 
tured in 181, Nicholas Owen 
killed by torture in 182. 

Tregian, Thomas ; condemned for 
having an Agnus Dei 39. 

Tresham, Francis ; his family 90, 
out with Lord Essex 91, joins 
the Plot 91, suspected of betray- 
ing it 102, taken 112, when 
dying retracts what he had said 
against Fr. Garnett 260, when 
at Lord Vaux's cclvi. 

Trumbol ; English Agent in 
Belgium cxcviii. 

Tutbury Castle ; Mary Queen of 
Scots confined there x, ccliii, 26. 

Tyrrel, Anthony ; in the Clink 
lxxxi. 

USHER, Bishop of Armagh ; his 
opinion of Powder Plot ccxlviii. 

Vaux, Anne ; visits Mrs. Hey- 
wood cxxxviii, returns to Lord 
Vaux's from a long journey 137, 
her friendly offices to Father 
Garnett 167, defended by him 
at his death 293, deceived by 
the keeper 168, taken to the 
Tower 172, her confession 259. 

Vaux, Edward Lord; cxxxi, 136, 
marriage proposed with Earl of 
Suffolk's daughter 137, has two 
houses three miles apart 138, 
imprisoned clxxxv, cclv, exa- 
mined by Lord Salisbury 140. 

Vaux, Elizabeth ; cxxxi, her 
courage before the Council 
clxxxii, 140, imprisoned and 
found at Mass clxxxv. 

Vaux, George ; marries Eliza- 
beth Roper cxxxii, at Hackney 
cxxxiv, his mother cxxxv. 

Vaux, Sir Ambrose ; clxxiv. 

Villa Mediana, Conde de ; Spanish 
Ambassador, cxciii, cclvii, had 
Father Garnett's straw in his 
keeping 303. 



Vitelleschi, Mutius, General S.J. ;. 
sends to the Bishop of Chal- 
cedon to clear Fr. Gerard cclxii. 

Wade, Sir William ; Secretary 
to Privy Council Ixxx, examines 
Fr. Gerard xciii, ccxvi, while 
under torture c, professes to 
bring message from the Queen 
ci, shows his knowledge of Fr. 
Garnett's house in Spital cxliii, 
reviles Fr. Garnett 162, brings 
him for trial 225, takes Mr. 
Tresham's man 261. 

Wales, Prince of; 63, 85, 91. 

Walley, see Garnett. 

Wallis, Richard and Wm.; found 
in Mr. Wiseman's house xliv. 

Walpole, Henry, S.J. ; martyr 18, 
xc v, his cell in Tower xc, invoked 
by Fr. Gerard cxxiii, his con- 
stancy 132. 

Walpole, Michael, S.J. ; serves Fr. 
Gerard lxv, reconciles a knight 
clxvi, extract of a letter from 
ccxlv. 

Walpole, Richard, S.J. ; at Valla- 
dolid, Vice-prefect of the English 
mission cxciv. 

Walsyngham, Sir Francis ; his 
daughter marries Lord Dun- 
kellin and is converted clix, clxi, 
examines Br. Emerson ccliv. 

Waltham, Great; NorthendinxxxL 

Watson's ; his treason hindered 
by Jesuits 73, specially by Fr. 
Gerard 74, and by Fr. Garnett 
250, he begs pardon of the 
Society at his death 132, James 7 
promises to him 214. 

West ; a messenger between 
Priests ccliii. 

Westmoreland ; no such of the 
Society 165. 

Weston, William alias Edmunds, 
S.J. ; wears clerical dress in 
prison lxxxi, in Wisbech xxiv, 
282, his virtue 132. 

Whitmore, Novice, S.J. ; cci. 

Whyneyard, Keeper of Wardrobe; 
lets the vaults 99. 

Whyte, Andrew, S.J. ; writes to 
Fr. Gerard for Green cxciii. 

Wilkinson, John ; finds Father 
Garnett's straw 302. 

Williams, see Ellis. 



344 



Alphabetical Index. 



Williams; his treason 234,249,xcv. 

Williamson, Ralph ; found in Mr. 
Wiseman's house xliv. 

Willis, Ralph ; goes to Lady- 
Gerard's xxxv, attends on Fr. 
Gerard xlii, xliii, made Priest 
at Rome lxv. 

Wilson; author of English Martyr- 
ology ccxlix. 

Wimbish ; Braddocks in, xxx. 

Winchester Nuns ; xxxvii. 

Winifred's (St.) Well; Fr. Garnett's 
journey 78, 240, 258, cclxii, Fr. 
Ouldcorne cured 284. 

Winsor, the Lord ; his armoury 
at Warwick 107. 

Winter J ohn ; tried in Westminster 
Hall 191, sent to Worcester 266, 
converts a felon in prison 271, 
execution 276. 

Winter, Robert ; his estate and 
marriage 70, joins the Plot 71, 
escapes for a time no, taken 
112, tried in Westminster Hall 
191, his death 216. 

Winter, Thomas ; one of the first 
conspirators 53, of Huddington 
58, his scholarship 58, a friend 
of Catesby 59, is sent to the 
Constable of Spain 61, 236, 251, 
wounded and taken 109, his 
confession ccxxiv, 112, 200, and 
passim, taken to Westminster 
Hall for trial 191, his death 
220, not at Lord Vaux's cclvi. 

Wisbech ; prisoners at famished 79. 

Wiseman, Anne; a Nun of Sionxxx. 

Wiseman, Anne ; a widow xlii. 

Wiseman, Barbara ; Abbess of 
Sion xxxi. 

Wiseman, Bridget ; an Augusti- 
nianess at Louvain xxxi, crosses 
the sea xliv. 

Wiseman, George ; of Upminster, 
Justice of Peace xlii. 

Wiseman, Jane ; an Augusti- 
nianess at Louvain xxxi, crosses 
the sea xliv. 

Wiseman, Jane ; daughter of Sir 
Edmund Huddleston xxxi, her 
character lxxviii. 

Wiseman, Jane ; the widow xxx, 
her house at Northend xxxi, 
her pilgrimage to Wisbech xxxi, 
condemned to peine forte etdure 



in the Gatehouse lxxxii, con- 
fronted with Fr. Gerard lxxxii. 

Wiseman, John, S.J. ; entered the 
Society in Rome and died there 
xxx, pseudonym of Scudamore 
a Priest xliii. 

Wiseman, Mary ; daughter of 
Anne, a recusant xlii. 

Wiseman, Mary ; daughter of 
George, a recusant xlii. 

Wiseman, Robert; in the Clink xlii, 
died in battle in Belgium xxxi. 

Wiseman, Thomas, S.J. ; entered 
the Society in Rome and died 
at St. Omers xxx. 

Wiseman, William ; his house, 
Braddocks, in Wimbish, xxx, 
knighted xxxi, his descendants 
cclv, visits Lady Gerard xxxv, 
his arrest xlvii, his examination 
xlviii, Braddocks searched lii, 
his book written in prison 
lxxvii, released for money, lives 
near the Clink, returns to Brad- 
docks lxxviii. 

Woodroff, Lady Elizabeth ; xxxvi. 

Woodward ; a Priest cxxviii. 

Worcester, Earl of; one of Fr. 
Garnett's judges 226, 

Worsley ; a pursuivant xli. 

Wright, Christopher; enters the 
conspiracy 70, entrusts money 
to Bates 210, sent to Flanders 
236, shot 109. 

Wright, John ; one of the first 
conspirators 53, his early life 
59, shot 109, taken to West- 
minster Hall for trial 191. 

Yelverton, Sir Christopher ; 
his sister converted xxvi, one of 
Fr. Garnett's judges 226. 

Yorke ; his treason 234, 249. 

Yorke, Sir John ; brief for his 
prosecution cclvii. 

Young, Richard; examines John 
Frank xl, William Wiseman 1, 
Fr. Gerard lxi, lxvii, Brother 
Emerson ccliv, takes a bribe 
lxix, forswears himself lxvii, 
ccxviii, dies miserably lxxix. 

Zuniga, Don Pedro de ; 
Flemish Ambassador clxxxiv, 
cxciii, cclvii, Donna Maria de 






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